Income - Inequality (Atkinson Index)

This indicator reports Atkinson’s measure of income disparity. This value is used to measure income inequality, and to determine which end of the income distribution contributes most to the observed inequality. Atkinson’s measure of income disparity is a fraction between 0 and 1, where 0 represents a state of equal income distribution.

Source

2007-11.

Methodology

Atkinson index values for counties, states, and the United States are generated through custom analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2007-2011 American Community Survey (ACS) data. The index represents income inequality and is calculated based on area household income estimates. Atkinson’s index can be represented using the following formula:

Index Value = 1 – [ ? (?_i / µ ) ^1-?&nbsp *&nbspƒ(?_i) ]^{1/( 1-?)}

Where ?_i is the mean income of interval i; µ is the mean income of the entire distribution; ƒ(?_i) is the proportion in interval i; and is a measure of the degree of inequality aversion. For this report we use = 0.5. Frequencies are based on those household income intervals reported in the ACS.

Income – Inequality (Atkinson Index)

Source

Methodology

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