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Income – Median Family Income

This indicator reports median family income based on the latest 5-year American Community Survey estimates. A family household is any housing unit in which the householder is living with one or more individuals related to him or her by birth, marriage, or adoption. Family income includes the incomes of all family members age 15 and older.

Source

Source Description

The American Community Survey (ACS) is a nationwide survey designed to provide communities with reliable and timely social, economic, housing, and demographic data every year. The ACS has an annual sample size of about 3.5 million addresses, with survey information collected nearly every day of the year. Data are pooled across a calendar year to produce estimates for that year. As a result, ACS estimates reflect data that have been collected over a period of time rather than for a single point in time as in the decennial census, which is conducted every 10 years and provides population counts as of April 1. The Census Bureau combines 5 consecutive years of ACS data to produce estimates for geographic areas with fewer than 65,000 residents. These 5-year estimates represent data collected over a period of 60 months. Because the ACS is based on a sample, rather than all housing units and people, ACS estimates have a degree of uncertainty associated with them, called sampling error. In general, the larger the sample, the smaller the level of sampling error. Data users should be careful in drawing conclusions about small differences between two ACS estimates because they may not be statistically different.

Citation: U.S. Census Bureau: UNDERSTANDING AND USING AMERICAN COMMUNITY SURVEY DATA: WHAT ALL DATA USERS NEED TO KNOW (2018).

For more information about this source, including data collection methodology and definitions, refer to the American Community Survey data user’s website.

Methodology

Counts of family households and families by income level are acquired from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). Data represent estimates for the 5-year period 2019-2023. Mapped data are summarized to 2023 census tract boundaries. A family consists of a householder and one or more other people living in the same household who are related to the householder by birth, marriage*, or adoption. Family households have a minimum of two members, and thus family income is typically larger than household income. Median income figures are only available for those geographic areas reported in the ACS. Due to the nature of medians, report areas based on multiple counties or custom areas will return “no data”.
For more information on the data reported in the American Community Survey, please see the complete American Community Survey 2023 Subject Definitions.

*Note: In Census Bureau tabulations, beginning in 2023, unless otherwise specified, the terms “spouse”, “married couple” and “marriage” include same-sex couples and marriages.

Data Breakouts Available

  • Median Family Income by Race / Ethnicity of Householder
  • Median Family Income by Family Composition
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