The 30 Metros in the US with the Highest and Lowest Incomes

Jon Government

Breath-taking differences in a vast country.
The Census Bureau released another data trove today for 2016, based on the American Community Survey. Among many other data points, the survey details median household incomes by geographic location, such as by metro area, county, or state. And they show just how enormous the income differences in the US are from city to city.
Of the 382 metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) that the US government recognizes, the median income of $110,000 in Silicon Valley is over three times the median income of $35,600 in Laredo, TX.
These MSAs can be large. For example, the extended San Francisco Bay Area is divided in several metros including the two biggest:
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, which is the southern portion of Silicon Valley and includes Palo Alto. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, which includes five counties (San Francisco, Alameda, Marin, Contra Costa, and San Mateo) that make up the northern part of Silicon Valley, San Francisco, parts of the East Bay, and a part of the North Bay. These two are also the metros that had the highest median household incomes in the US in 2016, of $110,040 and $96,677 respectively.
‘Household income’ is income by all household members and from all sources of money, including ‘earnings’ (wages, salaries, and the like) and investment income such as interest, dividends, and rents (#11-#13):

This post was published at Wolf Street by Wolf Richter ‘ Sep 14, 2017.