PORTLAND — The federal government reports that Maine’s rate of growth in real personal income from 2011 to 2012 was the second lowest in the United States.

The Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/RSIAWP ) reported on Friday that Maine showed a 0.3 percent rate of growth in that time span, to $38,516. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that the figure is the lowest among 49 states that experienced growth in real personal income from 2011 to 2012. South Dakota was the only state to decline.

Policy analyst Joel Johnson of the Maine Center for Economic Policy told the Press Herald that a surge in cost of living contributed to Maine’s low rate of growth. He told the paper that housing and fuel were key areas where prices sharply rose.