Why This is Important
The median household income provides an indication of how well people are doing financially in a neighborhood. Lower wage earners may have higher percentages of their income devoted to housing, food and healthcare and less for saving. This creates persistent stress and less access to wellness and safety than exists for wealthier households. American communities - and Durham is no exception - are fundamentally stratified by income and by race. Median household income is a primary Census Bureau variable that reflects in its simplicity the essential divergence of economic opportunity for Americans.
About the Data
This metric value shows the household income at the midpoint of all households with householders who were identified as Black by the census. In most cases, the householder is the person or one of the people in whose name the home is owned, being bought, or rented. Within each census area, half of the households with Black householders earn an annual income that’s greater than the median, and half earn an annual income lower than the median.
As with all measurements from the American Community Survey in the Neighborhood Compass, this data represents 5 years' worth of surveying. With each annual update, the 5-year period advances by dropping one year and incorporating the next. For this reason, annual releases of this measurement are not suitable for true time series comparison until no overlap exists among the survey periods.
Source: American Community Survey (ACS)
Additional Resources
| Resource | Learn More and Take Action |
|---|---|
| Final Recommendations of Durham’s Racial Equity Task Force | In a city born during Reconstruction and reared under Jim Crow, shocking inequities between white people and people of color are still evident in 21st century Durham. If we reject the notion that these disparities are normal, due to differences in capability or culture, it is imperative that we take significant strides to undo the negative legacies that haunt our local and national history. We need to be not merely anti-racist in thought, but actively and continuously anti-racist in deed. |
| Stratification economics: the role of intergroup inequality, by William A. Darity Jr. | The foundations of stratification economics, explaining how the intergenerational accumulation of wealth by race continues to drive the growing gaps between dominant groups (white people) and subordinate groups (all other groups). |
Select a base geography (depending on the dataset, different geographies may be available).
Data Distribution, 2022
Median Household Income (Black Households)
