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> Of the 3,142 counties in the United States, median household income declined in 222 counties (7.1 percent), while median household income increased in 521 cou
by dahfizz 8y ago
> Of the 3,142 counties in the United States, median household income declined in 222 counties (7.1 percent), while median household income increased in 521 counties (16.6 percent)
Does this mean that ~75% of counties had excatly zero change in median income? Like down to the cent? With or without inflation? This is difficult to believe. Even with stagnant wages you would expect some up and down across the whole country.
- IkmoIkmo 8y agoIt's a census, so they're taking a sample. I would assume that 75% of counties had statistical outcomes that weren't statistically significantly different from the previous measurement. Consider if you sample the same county on the same day 10 times, you'll get 10 different outcomes, that doesn't mean income changed that day. In addition, they may have used a threshold value. But it's not noted anywhere. I'd also assume indeed there was inflation-adjustment.
- vaughnegut 8y agoBut if you take a mean of those samples' means it would approach the population mean with an approximately normal distribution. Isn't that only an improvement? (Disclaimer I've only taken intro to stats at an undergrad level, exam next week)
- dragonwriter 8y ago> Does this mean that ~75% of counties had excatly zero change in median income? Like down to the cent? Well, no, the ACS uses whole dollars as the indivisible unit for income stats. And it is estimated, not actual, with a reported (non-zero) margin of error for each figure in the source. E.g., here's the national median income table for 2017, by various characteristics: https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/...