This visualization compares county-level median household income from the 2004-2009 and 2010-2014 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates and compares the confidence intervals of the surveys to determine whether there was a significant increase or decline in median household income between the surveys, or no statistically significant change. Estimates from the 2004-2009 survey were converted to 2014 inflation-adjusted dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ ‘Consumer Price Index – All Urban Consumers‘ benchmark. These adjusted figures were compared with the median household estimate from the 2010-14 ACS (which were originally published in 2014 inflation-adjusted dollars).

Counties with inflation-adjusted median household income estimates with overlapping margins of error between the two surveys (when both survey estimates are expressed in 2014 inflation-adjusted dollars) are considered not to have experienced a statistically significant change in median household income between the survey periods. Counties which have an upper bound of the 2004-2009 confidence interval which is smaller than the lower bound of the 2010-2014 confidence interval, are considered to have had a statistically significant increase in median household income between the two survey periods. Conversely, those counties which have a lower bound of the 2009-2014 confidence interval which is greater than the upper bound of the 2010-2014 confidence interval are considered to have experienced a statistically significant decline in median household income.

The American Community Survey data showed statistically significant increase in median household income in 88 counties between these survey periods; 2,378 showed no significant change, and 677 a statistically significant decrease in median household income. Notably, the majority of the U.S. population lives in the counties that showed a significant decrease in household income: according to the 2014 ACS population figures, about 202 million people – 64% of the U.S. population – resided in these 677 counties.

Note that this visualization’s inflation adjustment uses national level Consumer Price Index, which may not reflect inflation differences that exist across geographies or regional differences in housing, transportation, or other sectors. The American Community Survey confidence intervals used here are the originally published data, which was reported at a 90% confidence interval.

[xyz-ihs snippet=”Change-in-median-household-income-by-County”]