COEUR d'ALENE - Strong business profits plus modest wage and salary increases offset weakness in some agricultural areas of Idaho, to increase personal income in 2012 across nearly all of the state.

Only Custer County, where molybdenum mining has been soft, posted a decrease from 2011 to 2012, and it was just eight-tenths of one percent.

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis on Thursday estimated total personal income in Idaho's 33 rural counties at $18.5 billion, up 4.3 percent from 2011 and two-tenths of a percentage point higher than the national increase.

By contrast, total personal income in the 11 urban counties hit $91.5 billion, up 3.9 percent from 2011.

Statewide, personal income was up 3.9 percent from 2011, a third of a percentage point below the national increase.

The stronger performance in rural Idaho boosted its share of total state personal income to 33.7 percent, up a half percentage point from the depths of the recession.

Personal income is the total of all wages, salaries, business profits, investment earnings and transfer payments like Social Security, pensions and government assistance.

On a per capita basis, personal income increased 4.6 percent in rural Idaho to $33,649 while it rose just 2.8 percent in the urban part of the state to $34,654. The statewide increase was 3.1 percent to $34,481 while nationally per capita was up 3.4 percent to $43,735.

But the significant increase in rural per capita income - total income divided among every man, woman and child - was primarily the result of the continuing population shift from rural to urban areas while both wages and profits grew. Urban population increased 1 percent while rural population rose just 0.2 percent so fewer people in the rural areas divided up higher income to increase the per capita amount.

Total business profits - both on and off the farm - rose 8.6 percent in rural Idaho compared to a 5.4 percent increase in the urban areas. Nationally business profits were up 6 percent. Wages rose at about the same rate across the state - 2.5 percent in urban counties and 2.4 percent in rural areas - compared to the 4.3 percent increase nationally.