Money

Interactive: U.S. Counties by Household Income

Published

3 years ago

August 30, 2018

Jeff Desjardins

What U.S. counties have the largest household incomes?

Interactive: U.S. Counties by Household Income

With over 3,000 counties in the United States, variance is to be expected.

Geographically speaking, for example, there a wide spectrum of differences between counties. Some are situated in gorgeous mountain settings, while others may be almost entirely flat. There are urban counties that are major population centers, and others that don’t have a skyscraper within 500 miles of them.

Just like with geography, individual counties can also be quite unique when it comes to looking at socioeconomic measurements, such as median household income.

Median Income by County

Today’s interactive infographic comes to us from Overflow Data, and it helps give a sense of the household income spectrum by visualizing data from all U.S. counties.

Some counties, like Loudoun County (Virginia) have sky-high median incomes – in this case, $125,672 per household.

Meanwhile, other places are stuck in much rougher circumstances. For example, just a few hundred miles away is McDowell County (West Virginia), which has a median household income of $25,206.

Highs and Lows

The level of wealth found in a particular county is dependent on a large quantity of factors, including nearby industries, natural resources, demographics, tax rates, education, and available jobs and careers.

As you can see on the map, the most common range for median household income is from $45,000 to $70,000. Simultaneously, however, there are outliers that fall way outside that range for various reasons.

Highest Median Incomes

Here are the five counties with the highest median household incomes in the U.S.:

Rank	County	Median household income	Population
#1	Loudoun, Virginia	$125,672	362,435
#2	Fairfax, Virginia	$114,329	1,132,887
#3	Howard, Maryland	$113,800	308,447
#4	Arlington, Virginia	$108,706	226,092
#5	Hunterdon, NJ	$108,177	125,708

Not surprisingly, four of these five counties are clustered around Washington, D.C., and the other is just over an hour away from Manhattan.

Lowest Median Incomes

Finally, here are the five counties with the lowest median incomes in the country:

Rank	County	Median household income	Population
#1	McCreary, Kentucky	$18,972	17,850
#2	Sumter, Alabama	$20,428	13,285
#3	Holmes, Mississippi	$20,800	18,547
#4	Stewart, Georgia	$20,882	5,791
#5	Lee, Kentucky	$21,185	6,896

All of these are located in the Southeast, although just missing the top five was Mora County in New Mexico ($21,190). As you can see by the population numbers, these are all very rural places as well.

Want to see more on median household income? See it visualized at the state level.

Related Topics:money wealth united states counties household median income

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Green

Visualized: The Power of a Sustainable Investment Dollar

Do sustainable investments make a difference? From carbon emissions to board diversity, we break down their impact across three industries.

Published

3 days ago

June 17, 2021

Dorothy Neufeld

Visualizing the Power of a Sustainable Investment Dollar

Sustainable investments are booming.

Between January and November 2020 alone, investments in sustainable ETF and mutual funds grew 96%. The UN Principles of Responsible Investment now has over 3,000 signatories representing over $100 trillion in assets. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission established a Climate Risk Unit to analyze climate risk across derivative markets, and as of March 2021, new sustainability disclosures have come into effect in Europe.

But how do we know if sustainable investments have made a difference?

To answer this question, the above infographic from MSCI examines the effect of a sustainable investment dollar by looking at real-world examples.

A Sustainable vs. Unsustainable Dollar

To start, investing legend Benjamin Graham has compared the stock market to a “voting machine.” Just as consumers vote with their purchasing decisions, investors vote with their investment dollars. Especially in the short term, as more dollars flow to sustainable companies, this builds their exposure and access to capital.

In the long term, meanwhile, the market can be compared to a weighing machine. The market recognizes companies with profitable business models that improve their intrinsic value over time. Ultimately, this allows sustainable companies to expand and continue operating.

Given the rising momentum in both green assets and climate targets, here is how investment dollars have influenced and driven change across three industries.

1. Clean Energy vs. Fossil Fuel

Over the last several years, the energy sector has been associated with many of the problems causing climate change. For this reason, many investors are seeking out greener energy alternatives. But how does moving investment dollars from an ESG laggard to an ESG leader support the environment and society?

First, here is a brief explainer of ESG laggards and leaders:

ESG laggards: companies with the weakest environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance in their sector.
ESG leaders: companies with the strongest environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance in their sector.

Industry laggard: U.S. oil & gas company	Industry leader: U.S. utilities company
Scale of carbon-intensive business lines equal to 73% of its operation	47% lower CO2 emissions than the industry average
This is the equivalent of adding 26 million cars on the road annually	This is the equivalent of removing 9.9 million cars off the road annually
1 of 20 oil and gas companies are responsible for contributing to one third of GHG emissions since 1965	Uses 3X as many renewable sources than industry average
3X fewer jobs are created vs. energy efficient sector, resulting in lower productivity	This is roughly the same as saving over 9 million pounds of coal burned
MSCI ESG Rating: CCC	MSCI ESG Rating: AAA

Source: MSCI ESG Research

Based on the above example, investors have the ability to finance powerful green initiatives that reduce emissions by almost half, relative to their peers.

2. Safe vs. Unsafe Working Conditions

Weak safety protocols are a key sustainability issue for the industrial sector. Here’s how two companies compare:

Industry laggard: South African mining company	Industry leader: U.S. mining company
11 fatalities in 2019	Zero fatalities in 2019
Faced lawsuits from miners surrounding lung diseases contracted from dust exposure in gold mines Settlement cost: $350 million	Board-level oversight monitors health and safety performance
Lags behind peers in high incident rates	Leads peers in low incident rates
Lags behind peers in setting incident reduction targets	Leads industry in lost time incident rate & total recordable injury rate
MSCI ESG Rating: CCC	MSCI ESG Rating: A

Source: MSCI ESG Research

Despite the risks involved in the sector, investors can choose to support companies that take greater precautions to protect their workers.

3. Building Trust vs. Losing Trust

Over the last several years, the financial sector has faced increased scrutiny over fraudulent activities. Moving investment dollars from an ESG laggard to ESG leader may make a difference:

Industry laggard: U.S. bank	Industry leader: Dutch bank
$3 billion settlement in creating fictitious accounts to meet aggressive sales targets	Sustainable finance portfolio valued at over $20 billion
Drop in top-tier bank ratings	13% annual increase in climate finance
Board effectiveness questioned	Includes over 60 green loans, mobilizing environmentally friendly projects
Resignation of board members	Over 55% of board is female
MSCI ESG Rating: CCC	MSCI ESG Rating: A

Source: MSCI ESG Research

From board diversity to green loans, a sustainable investment dollar supports companies that are actively advancing society and the environment.

Sustainable Investment: The Time to Act

Recently, investor dollars and shareholder activism have been closely linked.

Between 2018 and 2020, large institutional investors filed 217 shareholder proposals on climate change alone, putting increased pressure on companies. Meanwhile, 270 proposals were filed on corporate political activity and 228 on fair labor and equal employment opportunity over the same timeframe. Across all ESG proposals, $2 trillion in assets were pushing for more equitable corporate action.

Through the power of a dollar, investors can send a clear signal to companies: the time for sustainable investing is now.

Debt

Visualizing the Snowball of Government Debt

After an unprecedented borrowing spree in response to COVID-19, what does government debt look like around the world?

Published

3 weeks ago

May 31, 2021

Marcus Lu

Visualizing the Snowball of Government Debt in 2021

As we approach the second half of 2021, many countries around the world are beginning to relax their COVID-19 restrictions.

And while this signals a return to normalcy for much of the global economy, there’s one subject that’s likely to remain controversial: government debt.

To see how each country is faring in the aftermath of an unprecedented global borrowing spree, this graphic from HowMuch.net visualizes debt-to-GDP ratios using April 2021 data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Ranking the Top 10 in Government Debt

Government debt is often analyzed through the debt-to-GDP metric because it contextualizes an otherwise massive number.

Take for example the U.S. national debt, which currently sits at over $27 trillion. In isolation this figure sounds daunting, but when expressed as a % of U.S. GDP, it works out to a more relatable 133%. This format also allows us to make a better comparison between countries, especially when their economies differ in size.

With that being said, here are the top 10 countries in terms of debt-to-GDP. For further context, we’ve included their 2019 and 2020 values as well.

Rank (2021)	Country	Debt-to-GDP (2019)	Debt-to-GDP (2020)	Debt-to-GDP (April 2021)
#1	🇯🇵 Japan	235%	256%	257%
#2	🇸🇩 Sudan	200%	262%	212%
#3	🇬🇷 Greece	185%	213%	210%
#4	🇪🇷 Eritrea	189%	185%	176%
#5	🇸🇷 Suriname	93%	166%	157%
#6	🇮🇹 Italy	135%	156%	157%
#7	🇧🇧 Barbados	127%	149%	143%
#8	🇲🇻 Maldives	78%	143%	140%
#9	🇨🇻 Cape Verde	125%	139%	138%
#10	🇧🇿 Belize	98%	127%	135%

Source: IMF

Japan tops the list with a ratio of 257%, though this isn’t really a surprise—the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio first surpassed 100% in the 1990s, and in 2010, it became the first advanced economy to reach 200%.

Such significant debt burdens are the result of non-traditional monetary policies, many of which were first implemented by Japan, then adopted by others. In the late 1990s, for instance, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) set interest rates at 0% to counter deflation and promote economic growth.

This low cost of borrowing enables businesses and governments to accumulate debt much more freely, and has seen widespread use among other developed nations post-2008.

What are the Risks?

Given that a majority of countries in this visual are red (meaning their debt-to-GDP ratios are over 50%), it’s safe to say that government borrowing is common practice.

But are large government debts a cause for concern?

Some believe that excessive borrowing will lead to higher interest costs in the long run, which could detract from economic growth and public sector investment. This theory is unlikely to become a reality anytime soon, however.

A recent report by RBC Wealth Management reported that the cost of servicing U.S. federal debt actually decreased in 2020, thanks to the low borrowing costs mentioned previously.

Perhaps a more prescient question would be: how long can the world’s central banks keep interest rates at near-zero levels?