Personal Finance
Chart: How Our Cities Impact the Future Incomes of Children
How Our Cities Impact the Future Incomes of Children
Certain cities in America are better for upward mobility
The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.
In the long-standing psychology debate on nature versus nurture, the question is whether it is our genes or our experiences that hold the keys to our future.
The short answer to this question, according to many of today’s scientists and psychologists, is that nature and nurture are always working together. In other words, genes do what they do depending on their context, and nature and nurture work to influence each other constantly.
In other words, our family experiences, households, and neighborhoods can set the stage for how our genes react. And on a macro level, looking at cities can tell us a lot about how our environments can help to influence future outcomes.
A Tale of Two City Types
Today’s chart pulls out some of the most compelling data from a 2015 report on intergenerational mobility.
The report studies five million families that have moved between counties in the United States, ultimately showing that there is a “childhood exposure effect” in cities that helps to predict future income levels as adults. Put another way, some cities are better than others in helping kids move “up the ladder” by accessing opportunities that later affect income. On balance, other places provide a tougher environment that makes it harder.
In this case, it should be noted that our above chart specifically deals with the city “bonuses” or “penalties”, expressed as an annual dollar amount for every year exposed to a city’s environment, on the future earnings of children in low-income families (25th percentile).
Digging into City Data
On an individual level, a person can of course succeed or fail regardless of their family or neighborhood. This happens all the time, and there are countless examples of rags-to-riches stories.
The concern highlighted by this study is that, on the whole, there is a significant disparity between cities as far as predicting future income goes. Growing up for an entire childhood in New Orleans or Los Angeles, on average, means that future income will be lower than the national median. In Salt Lake City or Boston, it’s likely to be higher than the national median.
The “bonuses” and “penalties” add up. For example, spending an entire childhood in New Orleans is estimated to lower future income to -$3,150 below the national median.
Cities in the Northeast seem to have the most mixed bag of “place effects”. New York, Philadelphia, and Buffalo have negative effects, while Boston and Washington, D.C. are both positive.
Meanwhile, the Southeast, Midwest, and Southwest all see a similar negative effect through major cities. Minneapolis and Pittsburgh are exceptions to this rule.
Finally, cities in the West appear to mostly have positive effects, with the exception of Los Angeles and Fresno (not on map).
Personal Finance
Ranked: The Best Countries to Retire In
Which countries are the best equipped to support their aging population? This graphic show the best countries to retire in around the world.

Ranked: The Best Countries to Retire in Around the World
Our global population is getting older. By 2050, the OECD predicts that 30% of people worldwide will be aged 65 or over.
While some countries are relatively prepared to handle this increase in the elderly demographic, others are already feeling the squeeze and struggling with the challenges that come with a rapidly aging population.
Which countries are the best equipped to support their senior citizens? This graphic uses data from the 2022 Natixis Global Retirement Index to show the best countries to retire in around the world, based on several different factors that weโll dig into below.
What Makes a Country Retirement-Friendly?
When people consider what makes a place an ideal retirement location, it’s natural to think about white sand beaches, hot climates, and endless sunny days. And, in truth, the right net worth opens up a world of opportunity of where to enjoy one’s golden years.
The Global Retirement Index (GRI) examines retirement from different, more quantitative perspective. The annual report looks at 44 different countries and ranks them based on their retirement security. The index considers 18 factors, which are grouped into four overarching categories:
- Health: Health spend per capita, life expectancy, and non-insured health spend.
- Quality of Life: Happiness levels, water and sanitation, air quality, other environmental factors, and biodiversity/habitat.
- Material Wellbeing: Income per capita, income equality, and employment levels.
- Finances in Retirement: Government debt, old-age dependency, interest rates, inflation, governance, tax pressure, and bank non-performing loans.
Using these 18 metrics, a score from 0.01 to 1 is determined for each country, which is then converted to a percentage. For a more detailed explanation of the report’s methodology, explore Appendix A (page 72) of the report.
The Top 25 Best Countries to Retire in
With an overall score of 81%, Norway comes in at number one as the most retirement-friendly country on the list.
Rank | Country | Score | Health | Quality of Life | Material Wellbeing | Finances in Retirement |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ๐ณ๐ด Norway | 81% | 91% | 87% | 79% | 69% |
2 | ๐จ๐ญ Switzerland | 80% | 90% | 86% | 69% | 74% |
3 | ๐ฎ๐ธ Iceland | 79% | 88% | 86% | 77% | 68% |
4 | ๐ฎ๐ช Ireland | 76% | 89% | 80% | 67% | 70% |
5 | ๐ฆ๐บ Australia | 75% | 88% | 77% | 66% | 72% |
6 | ๐ณ๐ฟ New Zealand | 75% | 85% | 81% | 64% | 71% |
7 | ๐ฑ๐บ Luxembourg | 75% | 91% | 81% | 72% | 59% |
8 | ๐ณ๐ฑ Netherlands | 75% | 89% | 80% | 78% | 56% |
9 | ๐ฉ๐ฐ Denmark | 74% | 86% | 88% | 76% | 54% |
10 | ๐จ๐ฟ Czech Republic | 73% | 76% | 68% | 84% | 64% |
11 | ๐ฉ๐ช Germany | 72% | 87% | 80% | 71% | 55% |
12 | ๐ซ๐ฎ Finland | 71% | 84% | 89% | 63% | 55% |
13 | ๐ธ๐ช Sweden | 71% | 90% | 87% | 59% | 56% |
14 | ๐ฆ๐น Austria | 71% | 86% | 82% | 69% | 54% |
15 | ๐จ๐ฆ Canada | 71% | 87% | 74% | 58% | 67% |
16 | ๐ฎ๐ฑ Israel | 70% | 82% | 74% | 60% | 66% |
17 | ๐ฐ๐ท South Korea | 70% | 80% | 59% | 68% | 73% |
18 | ๐บ๐ธ United States | 69% | 85% | 72% | 56% | 67% |
19 | ๐ฌ๐ง United Kingdom | 69% | 83% | 82% | 61% | 55% |
20 | ๐ง๐ช Belgium | 69% | 85% | 74% | 70% | 51% |
21 | ๐ธ๐ฎ Slovenia | 69% | 82% | 69% | 77% | 51% |
22 | ๐ฏ๐ต Japan | 69% | 91% | 67% | 72% | 51% |
23 | ๐ฒ๐น Malta | 68% | 78% | 61% | 72% | 63% |
24 | ๐ซ๐ท France | 66% | 90% | 78% | 57% | 48% |
25 | ๐ช๐ช Estonia | 66% | 68% | 68% | 60% | 68% |
Norway is at the top of this yearโs ranking for several reasons. For starters, it achieved the highest score in the Health category, largely because of its high average life expectancy, which is 83 years old, or 9 years longer than the global average.
Norway also has the highest score of all the countries for Governance, a category gauged by assessing country corruption levels, political stability, and government effectiveness, and is in a three-way tie with Japan and Luxembourg in the Health category.
Second on the list is another European country, Switzerland, with an overall score of 80%. Itโs the highest-ranked country for environmental factors, and it also has the highest overall score in the Finances in Retirement category.
A Regional Breakdown
While European countries dominate the top 10 in the ranking, how does Europe rank as a region as a whole? Before diving in, itโs important to note that the study actually breaks up Europe into two sections: Eastern Europe (grouped with Central Asia) and Western Europe.
Rank | Region | Overall Score |
---|---|---|
1 | North America | 69% |
2 | Western Europe | 66% |
3 | Eastern Europe and Central Asia | 49% |
4 | Latin America | 37% |
5 | Asia Pacific | 32% |
And from a regional perspective, North America comes in first place despite the fact no countries in the region made it into the top 10. North America only has two countries included in the ranking: Canada (#15) and the U.S. (#18), which both rank relatively high.
In contrast, Western and Eastern Europe have more countries to account for, which ultimately lowers their regional average.
The Future of Retirement
As longevity rises and the retirement aged population continues to increase worldwide, many countries are opting to change their pension policies in an effort to encourage people to stay in the workforce longer.
For instance, in 2018, people in the UK could claim their State Pension once they turned 65. By 2028, this age requirement will be raised to 67.
However, government intervention may not be necessary, as many people around the world are already staying in the workforce beyond the traditional retirement age (perhaps more out of necessity than choice).
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