Interactive map shows how where you live affects income

Brookings Institution map; click on the image to enlarge it or click here to see the interactive version.

A new economic analysis, complete with an interactive map, by the Brookings Institution breaks down how where you live affects your earnings, based on factors such as occupation, income-tax levels, age, and cost of living. Metropolitan areas, unsurprisingly, tend to have higher incomes than non-metro areas, with few exceptions.

The analysis also examines "some of the reasons why places have such different labor markets. When a place seems too good to be true (i.e., with high wages across the board and low cost of living), what could account for its seeming advantage over the rest of the country?" Lauren Bauwe, Audrey Breitwieser, Ryan Nunn and Jay Shambaugh report for Brookings. Economists consider such factors as part of what influences a worker's choice of where to live.