What Age Group In Your Area Makes The Highest Median Household Income?

Most people will experience their highest earning years in their 40’s and 50’s, according to research firm PayScale.  

Part of me thinks that since most people work into their 60’s they should theoretically be making the most in those years, their most senior.  But layoffs and age discrimination are real, so I guess that’s what brings it back to the 40’s and 50’s.  Or that’s my theory at least.

Wouldn’t it be cool if we could see a map of median household income by age group for each Census Tract in America?  Regular readers know me and my disturbing fetish for maps and data, and I’m here at your service as a “map dork in residence”.

 

The Map

The fine mapping folks at ESRI, many who are friends of mine, have this great map served up to give you what you want. 

Warning to cell phone users, these maps should work but will not be as easy to use or as functional.  So if you’re on a cell phone bookmark it or email to yourself and dive in deep when you get home on your laptop or full desktop. 

And because ESRI is a technical mapping company their online maps tend to be a little harder to use for folks who don’t do this for a living (also known as “normal folks”).  So I’m here to guide you, but it’s not really that hard. 

When you open the map it’ll probably be centered on the New York City area and look like this:  (click on the image for a higher resolution).

 

 

Here’s a larger look at the legend which is important to making sense of the data:

 

As you can see they’ve divided earners up into 4 different age groups:

• Householder under 25 (purple dot)
• Householder 25 to 44  (blue dot)
• Householder 45 to 64  (red dot)
• Householder 65 years and over (green dot)

There is also a “Tie” category which is a grey dot. 

And in a true move of cartographic ninja-ness, they have also scaled the dots to the amount of household income.  These are things us weirdos learn in cartography school, how to show multiple pieces of information as simply and elegantly as possible. 

So as you navigate the map, remember that each dot shows the highest household earning group by age (by color), as well as how much they make (by size). 

And when you click on a dot you get the information broken down.  Let’s go to a famously high income place, like Silicon Valley CA.  Here’s a tract that has a median household income of $214,063 for households in the 25 – 44 age group

When you click on a dot it gives the median household income of the highest of the four age groups.  But notice it also shows a graph at the bottom that breaks down all four age groups so you can compare.  If you hover your mouse over the bars in the graph you get the median incomes of the other age groups on a pop-up menu. 

If you’re a data geek like me I just ruined your afternoon, this is worse than cat videos 🙂

Notice there aren’t too many purple dots on the map, which makes sense.  If the highest household earners in an area are households run by someone under 25 , that would indicate to me there aren’t many older-run households in the area. 

Here’s one in Washington D.C. in the north Capitol Hill area.

Householders under 25 earn the most in that Census Tract, with a median household income of $135,532.  Not bad for a kid huh?  I can guarantee those kids aren’t Congressional staffers, like many under 25ers in D.C. 

 

Geoarbitrage

So there you have it financial warriors, a great tool to pit us against each other based on geography and age 🙂 

In all seriousness, if you’re a regular reader you know I post lots of tools like this that show various aspects of money and finance from a location perspective.  If you’re considering Geoarbitrage in the United States this mapping tool can help you gauge income levels by age to help tune you in on trends and areas you might not be aware of.

Also be sure to check out my Geoarbitrage Resources Page that has tons of great tools to help you find your perfect location.

I hope you find these resources handy and I will continue to expose valuable tools that can help when deciding on a geoarbitrage strategy.