economy_household_income_distribution_county_year
Household income distribution per county-year carried in BOTH unit systems - nominal (current dollars, straight from ACS B19080/B19081/B19083) and real (cost-of-living + inflation adjusted to constant 2022 dollars). Because the distribution is LOCAL to the county, the adjustment is a single per-county-year scalar (real_income_deflator), so every percentile/quintile-mean scales by it and Gini and the top/bottom quintile mean ratio are identical in both systems. Nominal spans the full ACS panel; real_* columns and the deflator exist only where BEA RPP is available (2010-2022), NULL otherwise (coverage_flag). Tier B.
overview
3,222 counties. ACS B19080-B19083 covers all counties; small counties have wide MOE on quintiles.
current vintage — 2020-2024 ACS 5-Year
history — ACS Gini and quintile tables: 2009-2013 vintage to present
source & licensing
fields
| name | type | definition |
|---|---|---|
| country_idkey | string | ISO alpha-2 country code (always 'US' for domestic tables).Part of primary key. |
| county_idkey | string | 5-character FIPS code identifying the county.Part of primary key. Joins dim.counties on county_id. |
| county_name | string | Human-readable county name corresponding to county_id. |
| coverage_flag | string | Real-coverage flag: 'ok' (metro RPP), 'state_rpp_nonmetro_approx' (non-metro county using state RPP), or 'real_unavailable_no_rpp' (no RPP that year, real_* NULL). |
| gini_coefficient | float64 · index (0–1) | Gini coefficient of household income inequality from ACS B19083, where 0 represents perfect equality and 1 represents maximum concentration of income in a single household. Higher values indicate greater inequality. |
| mean_income_q1 | int64 · dollars (nominal) | Mean household income of households in the bottom quintile from ACS B19081. Reflects average earnings among the lowest-income 20% of households in the county. |
| mean_income_q2 | int64 · dollars (nominal) | Mean household income of households in the second quintile from ACS B19081. Reflects average earnings among households in the 20th–40th percentile range. |
| mean_income_q3 | int64 · dollars (nominal) | Mean household income of households in the middle quintile from ACS B19081. Reflects average earnings among households in the 40th–60th percentile range. |
| mean_income_q4 | int64 · dollars (nominal) | Mean household income of households in the fourth quintile from ACS B19081. Reflects average earnings among households in the 60th–80th percentile range. |
| mean_income_q5 | int64 · dollars (nominal) | Mean household income of households in the top quintile from ACS B19081. Reflects average earnings among the highest-income 20% of households in the county. |
| median_household_income | float64 · dollars (nominal) | Median household income in the county for the survey year, from ACS table B19049 or B19013. Higher values indicate greater central household earnings. |
| national_cpi_index | float64 · index | National CPI-U (US city average, all items) for the year; the time (inflation) component of real_income_deflator. |
| p20_hh_income | int64 · dollars (nominal) | Upper income limit of the bottom quintile (20th percentile threshold) from ACS B19080. Households earning at or below this amount fall in the lowest fifth of the county income distribution. |
| p40_hh_income | int64 · dollars (nominal) | Upper income limit of the second quintile (40th percentile threshold) from ACS B19080. Households earning at or below this amount fall in the lower two-fifths of the county income distribution. |
| p60_hh_income | int64 · dollars (nominal) | Upper income limit of the third quintile (60th percentile threshold) from ACS B19080. Households earning at or below this amount fall in the lower three-fifths of the county income distribution. |
| p80_hh_income | int64 · dollars (nominal) | Upper income limit of the fourth quintile (80th percentile threshold) from ACS B19080. Households earning at or below this amount fall in the lower four-fifths of the county income distribution. |
| real_base_year | int64 · year | Base year for the constant-dollar real_* columns (2022); NULL where no deflator. |
| real_income_deflator | float64 · multiplier | Per-county-year real multiplier = (100/rpp_overall) x (cpi_2022/cpi_year); real_* = nominal x this, nominal = real / this. NULL where BEA RPP is unavailable (2023-2024, pre-2010). |
| real_mean_income_q1 | float64 · constant 2022 USD | Mean household income of the bottom income quintile in constant 2022 dollars (mean_income_q1 x real_income_deflator). |
| real_mean_income_q2 | float64 · constant 2022 USD | Mean household income of the 2nd income quintile in constant 2022 dollars (mean_income_q2 x real_income_deflator). |
| real_mean_income_q3 | float64 · constant 2022 USD | Mean household income of the 3rd (middle) income quintile in constant 2022 dollars (mean_income_q3 x real_income_deflator). |
| real_mean_income_q4 | float64 · constant 2022 USD | Mean household income of the 4th income quintile in constant 2022 dollars (mean_income_q4 x real_income_deflator). |
| real_mean_income_q5 | float64 · constant 2022 USD | Mean household income of the top income quintile in constant 2022 dollars (mean_income_q5 x real_income_deflator). |
| real_median_household_income | float64 · constant 2022 USD | Median household income in constant 2022 dollars (nominal median_household_income x real_income_deflator); cost-of-living + inflation adjusted.Populated 2019-2022 only (inherits the nominal ACS median coverage). |
| real_p20_hh_income | float64 · constant 2022 USD | 20th-percentile household income in constant 2022 dollars (p20_hh_income x real_income_deflator). |
| real_p40_hh_income | float64 · constant 2022 USD | 40th-percentile household income in constant 2022 dollars (p40_hh_income x real_income_deflator). |
| real_p60_hh_income | float64 · constant 2022 USD | 60th-percentile household income in constant 2022 dollars (p60_hh_income x real_income_deflator). |
| real_p80_hh_income | float64 · constant 2022 USD | 80th-percentile household income in constant 2022 dollars (p80_hh_income x real_income_deflator). |
| rpp_overall | float64 · index (US=100) | BEA Regional Price Parity (all items) - county price level relative to the US average (US=100) for the year; the place (cost-of-living) component of real_income_deflator. |
| rpp_source | string | Geographic basis of rpp_overall: 'metro' (county's own metro RPP) or 'state' (non-metro county inheriting the state non-metro RPP). |
| state_idkey | string | 2-character FIPS code identifying the state.Part of primary key. Joins dim.states on state_id. |
| top_to_bottom_quintile_mean_ratio | float64 · ratio | Derived inequality metric computed as mean_income_q5 divided by mean_income_q1. Higher values indicate greater income inequality between the top and bottom fifths of the distribution. |
| yearkey | int64 | Reference year of the observation.Part of primary key. |
joins
how to use this table
Nominal from ACS B19080 (quintile thresholds), B19081 (quintile means), B19083 (Gini); median from ACS median household income. Real = nominal * real_income_deflator, where real_income_deflator = (100 / rpp_overall) * (cpi_2022 / cpi_year) per the BEA Real Personal Income method: PLACE (cost of living) by BEA Regional Price Parities (US=100 each year, RPP owns place) and TIME (inflation) by the national CPI-U (US city average, owns time; metro CPI is deliberately not used as it would re-count the place dimension RPP captures). RPP is metro-grain, so non-metro counties inherit the state non-metro RPP (rpp_source=state, coverage_flag=state_rpp_nonmetro_approx). Base year = 2022. Scale-invariant measures (Gini, top/bottom quintile mean ratio) are identical in nominal and real. Sources: ACS B19080/B19081/B19083, BEA RPP, BLS CPI-U US city average.
Top-1% or top-5% shares (ACS is top-coded; top-end income shares are not provided); single-year change in small counties; pre-tax-and-transfer inequality (this is post-tax-pre-transfer cash income only).
real_* columns and real_income_deflator are NULL for 2023-2024 (and pre-2010) where BEA RPP is unavailable (coverage_flag=real_unavailable_no_rpp); nominal spans the full panel. The cost-of-living adjustment (RPP) is metro-grain - counties in a metro share one RPP and non-metro counties inherit the state non-metro RPP, so within-metro and rural cost differences are approximate. real_median_household_income inherits the nominal ACS median coverage (2019+); real percentiles and quintile means span 2010-2022.