Money

Most Americans Hit “Peak Income” More Than 15 Years Ago

Published

8 years ago

November 19, 2015

Jeff Desjardins

After adjusting for inflation, the majority of Americans are worse off today than they were decades ago. The map below shows that median household income actually peaked at least 15 years ago in 81% of U.S. counties.

Most Americans Reached

This visualization of household incomes is from an interactive map created by the Washington Post that allows users to zoom in on individual counties to see how income has changed over the years.

Some of the more interesting revelations include:

Income peaked one year ago for many of the counties that are a part of the shale boom. This includes much of North and South Dakota, as well as parts of Texas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Income in Washington, D.C. and neighboring Arlington County also peaked then.
In 1999, a total of 1,623 counties had their households reach peak income. The majority of these counties are in the Midwest and Southeast.
The most southern part of California and parts of New England both peaked around 25 years ago.
Many states along the Rocky Mountains such as Wyoming and Montana had counties that peaked roughly 35 years ago.
Household income peaked in upstate New York, the northern tip of California, and southern Nevada at the same time that humans were first landing on the moon in 1969.

Related Topics:money America united states washington peak income household income

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Economy

Ranked: The Top 20 Countries in Debt to China

The 20 nations featured in this graphic each owe billions in debt to China, posing concerns for their economic future.

Published

6 days ago

April 29, 2024

Marcus Lu

Ranked: The Top 20 Countries in Debt to China

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

In this graphic, we ranked the top 20 countries by their amount of debt to China. These figures are as of 2022, and come from the World Bank (accessed via Yahoo Finance).

The data used to make this graphic can be found in the table below.

Country	Total external debt to China ($B)
🇵🇰 Pakistan	$26.6
🇦🇴 Angola	$21.0
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka	$8.9
🇪🇹 Ethiopia	$6.8
🇰🇪 Kenya	$6.7
🇧🇩 Bangladesh	$6.1
🇿🇲 Zambia	$6.1
🇱🇦 Laos	$5.3
🇪🇬 Egypt	$5.2
🇳🇬 Nigeria	$4.3
🇪🇨 Ecuador	$4.1
🇰🇭 Cambodia	$4.0
🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire	$3.9
🇧🇾 Belarus	$3.9
🇨🇲 Cameroon	$3.8
🇧🇷 Brazil	$3.4
🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo	$3.4
🇿🇦 South Africa	$3.4
🇲🇳 Mongolia	$3.0
🇦🇷 Argentina	$2.9

This dataset highlights Pakistan and Angola as having the largest debts to China by a wide margin. Both countries have taken billions in loans from China for various infrastructure and energy projects.

Critically, both countries have also struggled to manage their debt burdens. In February 2024, China extended the maturity of a $2 billion loan to Pakistan.

Soon after in March 2024, Angola negotiated a lower monthly debt payment with its biggest Chinese creditor, China Development Bank (CDB).

Could China be in Trouble?

China has provided developing countries with over $1 trillion in committed funding through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a massive economic development project aimed at enhancing trade between China and countries across Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Many believe that this lending spree could be an issue in the near future.

According to a 2023 report by AidData, 80% of these loans involve countries in financial distress, raising concerns about whether participating nations will ever be able to repay their debts.

While China claims the BRI is a driver of global development, critics in the West have long warned that the BRI employs debt-trap diplomacy, a tactic where one country uses loans to gain influence over another.

Editor’s note: The debt shown in this visualization focuses only on direct external debt, and does not include publicly-traded, liquid, debt securities like bonds. Furthermore, it’s worth noting the World Bank data excludes some countries with data accuracy or reporting issues, such as Venezuela.