Data Underload  / 

Percentage of Households in Each Income Level

By Nathan Yau

Now that we know the cutoffs that make lower-, middle-, and upper-income in each state, we can estimate the percentage of households in each income level. Adjust for people in the household and sort states by highest percentages in the income levels.

Household Income Level Breakdown

Bars represent lower-, middle-, and upper-income percentages for each state.

 

The data comes from the 5-year American Community Survey from 2017. Middle-income is defined as two-thirds the median income for a group to twice the median. Lower-income is everything below the former, and upper-income is everything greater than the latter.

It’s interesting to see the breakdowns for the one-person households. The relatively high percentages for the upper-income level at or greater than the 50% mark seems to suggest a lot of clustering towards the higher end. Increase the household size, and the upper-income percentages go down to the teens.

I suspect employment, occupations, and family makeup play a big role in the variation. Gonna have to look at that next.

What Qualifies as Middle-Income in Each State

See how income ranges change for each state.

Notes

  • The data comes from the 2017 5-year American Community Survey. I downloaded the data through IPUMS, which is my favorite way to get Census microdata.
  • I used R to analyze and prepare the data. I used D3.js to make the chart above.

Chart Type Used

Stacked Bar Chart

Become a member. Support an independent site. Make great charts.

See What You Get

Favorites

Shifting Incomes for American Jobs

For various occupations, the difference between the person who makes the most and the one who makes the least can be significant.

Who We Spend Time with as We Get Older

In high school, we spend most of our days with friends and immediate family. But then we get jobs, start a family, retire, and there’s a shift in who we spend our days with.

Guessing Names Based on What They Start With

I’m terrible at names, but maybe data can help. Put in your sex, the decade when you were born, and start putting in your name. I’ll try to guess before you’re done.

Reviving the Statistical Atlas of the United States with New Data

Due to budget cuts, there is no plan for an updated atlas. So I recreated the original 1870 Atlas using today’s publicly available data.