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

Causes of Death

There are many ways to die. Cancer. Infection. Mental. External. This is how different groups of people died over the past 10 years, visualized by age.

Divorce and Occupation

Some jobs tend towards higher divorce rates. Some towards lower. Salary also probably plays a role.

Data, R, and a 3-D Printer

We almost always look at data through a screen. It’s quick and good for exploration. So is there value in making data physical? I played around with a 3-D printer to find out.

Real Chart Rules to Follow

There are rules—usually for specific chart types meant to be read in a specific way—that you shouldn’t break. When they are, everyone loses. This is that small handful.