Income Inequality Marches On

Welcome to 2018!  We are making some fundamental shifts to our Weekly Insights which I hope you will enjoy.  We are moving our content towards more video and free self-service analysis around our weekly topical theme. We welcome your feedback and your ideas. 

 

Over 70% of population health is now attributed to exogenous social factors. We will focus our attention from week to week on uncovering the nuggets of community health and development insights from the huge amounts of data in the public domain.

 

In this Weekly Insight, we looked at the issue of Income Inequality and specifically compared the 2013 American Community Survey results to the most recent 2016 data. 

  • Those households at risk which we define as earning less than $25,000 represent about 1 in 5.5 households. This is down nominally from 2013 to 2016.

  • Households in the middle class (earning from $25,000 to less than $100,000) are 53.9% of households and also a slight decline from 2013. 

  • Households earning over $100,000 increased 2% from 2013 to 2016 and now represent approximately 1 in 4 households. However geographically, these are concentrated in the coastal cities.

  • We found some interesting geographic variations which are described in the video blog (2 1/2 minutes). 

 I created a free Interactive where you can select the household income level and the map will display the relative geographic concentrations based on the national average. The table also shows the counties with the highest concentrations of that particular income level. The Free Interactive is a stripped down version of the Income Levels topic in the new Population Analysis Interactive

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Share This Story

Similar Posts

  • As the Economy Grows, So Does Poverty

    There is a general perception that a rising economy raises all economic boats. But poverty rates would indicate that the poorest of the poor just seem to get poorer. Many counties have actually experienced a rise in poverty rates from 2012 to 2016. We took a quick look at the…

  • FAFSA Application Volume Down 11%

    The FAFSA Application Volume declined nearly 11% for the application cycles from June 30, 2014 through June 30, 2017 based on data from Federal Student Aid and analyzed using the Financial Aid Interactive. FAFSA application cycles are based on an 18-month period for any one particular school year.  Note the…

  • When is Free Tuition Really Free?

    The sticker pricing game has been in place a long time. No one ever pays full sticker price for items such as jewelry or cars. That is probably why University of Michigan came under scrutiny for its free tuition guarantee for families with income under $65,000. Cynics pointed this out…

  • Nursing Home Coverage of the Elderly

    While long-term care services more than the elderly, approximately 63% of residents are 65 or older. According to the Administration on Aging, population 65 years or older will increase from 14.1% of the population to 21.7% of the population by 2040. As the population ages over the course of the…

  • STEM Enrollment Fields Show Strong Growth

    The IPEDS Enrollment by Major Fields of Study is collected every other year and 2016 is a new reported year. IPEDS collects nine major fields of study and the enrollment is disaggregated by attendance status (full-time, part-time), level (undergraduate, graduate), race, and gender.   There are numerous ways to breakdown…

  • Distance Education Programs up 8.2%

    Distance Education continues its upward climb according to the most recent distance education data from IPEDS. The number of programs increased 8.2% in 2016, but this increase was less than the whopping 12.6% in 2015. There are now over 29,000 programs offered through distance education. Certificate programs continued their strong…