Mainers’ personal incomes shot up 1.4 percent in the first quarter of 2016, the second-highest growth rate in the country.

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Maine’s personal income grew the most among the six New England states, and nationally it ranked only behind Washington state, where personal incomes grew by 1.5 percent in the quarter, compared with the final quarter of 2015.

The bureau said personal income in Maine reached an annual rate of $58.1 billion in the first quarter, adjusted to offset seasonal variations. It was $57.3 billion in the previous quarter.

Bureau figures suggest that transfer receipts, which include Social Security payments, Medicare, unemployment benefits and Medicaid, led the way in Maine in the first quarter, rising 2.2 percent. Net earnings rose 1.3 percent and dividends, interest and rents were up 0.5 percent.

In 2014, after a dismal personal income report for the first quarter, Gov. Paul LePage suggested excluding transfer receipts and dividends, interest and rents from personal income calculations and focusing only on net earnings. He derided transfer payments as “welfare, pure and simple.”

This year, Maine’s rise in personal income outpaced the national increase for the first quarter, which was 1 percent, the same as in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Maine’s personal income figure has swung widely in the past year, declining 0.9 percent in the first quarter of 2015, but rising 1.9 percent, 1.2 percent and 1.4 percent in subsequent quarters.

By industry, construction posted the strongest income growth figures, contributing 0.15 percentage points to the overall state increase. Only income from farming dropped during the quarter, taking 0.6 percent points off the state’s 1.4 percent increase.

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