Lazaro Aleman: Greene Publishing, Inc.
Care to know how Madison County compared with the other 3,142 counties in the United States in terms of per-capita income as of 2014?
Madison County ranked number 3,045 overall, right below Tunica, Ms., at 3,044, and right above Martin, Ky., at 3,046.
Data from the 2009-2013 American Community Survey show that during the five-year period, the per-capita income in Madison County was $15,538, the median household income was $33,833, and the median family income was $40,486. The income figures were calculated based on a population of 19,070 and 6,739 households.
Ranked at number one in the survey was New York County in New York, which had a per-capita income of $62,498, a median household income of $69,659, and a family median income of $84,627. New York County’s population at the time was 1,605,272, and it had 736,192 households.
Ranked at the bottom at number 3,143 was Oglala Lakota County in South Dakota, which had a per-capita income of $8,768, a median household income of $25,648, and a median family income of $26,029. Oglala Lakota County’s population was 13,829, with 2,867 households.
In terms of Florida, the county with the highest median income during the cited period was St. Johns County at $64,876, and the lowest was Putnam County, at $32,497. Madison, with its median household income of $33,833 ranked 65 out of the state’s 67 counties.
Household income includes the income of the main householder plus all other persons ages 15 years or older in the house, whether related to the householder or not. Because many households consist of only one person, the average household income is usually less than the average family income.
Although the household income statistics cover the entire 12 months of a year, the characteristics of the individual in the household (and the composition of the household) may change over the year, whereas the interview is conducted at a specific point in time. “Thus,” it’s explained in the methodology, “the income of a household does not include amounts received by individuals who were members of the household during all or part of the 12-month period if these individuals no longer resided in the household at the time of the interview.” Similarly, income amounts reported by individuals who did not reside in the household during the 12-month period but who were household members during the time of the interview are included. For the overwhelming majority of households, however, the composition does not change during the 12-month period.
The median, meanwhile, divides the income distribution into two equal parts, with one-half of the cases falling below the median income and the other half being above the median. The median income is based on the distribution of the total number of households and families, including those with no income.