When The New York Times published a story last week saying six Eastern Kentucky coal counties were among the top 10 hardest places to live in the U.S., there was a broader story with an interactive map showing the ranks of all 3,135 counties in the nation. (Hat tip to Covering Poverty for the reminder.)
Counties were ranked based on percentage of residents with bachelor's degree, "median household income, unemployment rate, disability rate, life expectancy and obesity," Allan Flippen writes for The Upshot, a Times blog that did the analysis. "We tried to include other factors, including income mobility and measures of environmental quality, but we were not able to find data sets covering all counties in the United States."
The 10 lowest ranked counties are Breathitt, Clay, Jackson, Lee, Leslie and Magoffin in Eastern Kentucky, along with Humphreys County, Miss.; East Carroll Parish, La.; Jefferson County, Ga.; and Lee County, Ark. Los Alamos County, New Mexico, ranks highest, and six of the top 10 are suburbs of Washington D.C. To view the interactive map of where your county ranks click here. (Upshot map)
Counties were ranked based on percentage of residents with bachelor's degree, "median household income, unemployment rate, disability rate, life expectancy and obesity," Allan Flippen writes for The Upshot, a Times blog that did the analysis. "We tried to include other factors, including income mobility and measures of environmental quality, but we were not able to find data sets covering all counties in the United States."
The 10 lowest ranked counties are Breathitt, Clay, Jackson, Lee, Leslie and Magoffin in Eastern Kentucky, along with Humphreys County, Miss.; East Carroll Parish, La.; Jefferson County, Ga.; and Lee County, Ark. Los Alamos County, New Mexico, ranks highest, and six of the top 10 are suburbs of Washington D.C. To view the interactive map of where your county ranks click here. (Upshot map)
It should be remembered that "average isn't" -- I live and work in Boone County, Indiana, where the median household income is north of $68,000. But, when you break down information by census tracts, you'll discover that the median household income in Lebanon, the county seat, was $42,398 in 2011, while in Zionsville, in southeastern Boone County, it was $97,603.
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