newest census figures - NJ has highest median income per household at $54,000

[echostar]

maybe i do have a better chance of being rich after all! :D

[aphelion]

Higher than Colorado? Reaaaaally.... URL please.

And I thought I was the man having been contracted for the two largest law firms in Colorado. I always get the rug pulled from under me.

[momotx]

hmmm...that's not too shabby...

[echostar]

2nd place was connecticut, i dont remember their number

ill try and find a site

[echostar]

ok the site is www.census.gov theres all sorts of neat information on there, i cant find what im looking for though

[Xpander]

yeah....but then again, on the downside, you'd have to be in Jersey.

Juuuuuust kidding.

[ldoan]

Yeah, I guess you have to weigh the pros and cons of such a statistic. But it may be a little deceiving. It could mean that 10% of the people living in Jersey make a shit load of money and that helps bring the average income up. It also doesn't necessarily mean that people make more money in Jersey. Tons of people commute to and from NYC but live in Jersey. Figures like that are great but you've gotta fully be able to interpret where the numbers come from.

[petrol]

Doing my best to bring the median down...

[thehacker]

doing my best to bring the median up...

then again i've always worked in nyc (and now brooklyn)

so with the amount i'm getting taxed by all interested

parties, i may as well be workin' in jersey =)

but then i'd be giving up my awesome view of downtown

from between the brooklyn & manhattan bridges.

[sd]

think about this, of all the income in New York City's 5 boroughs, 2% of the people, create and and take home 70% of the revenue. 98% of the people split the remaining 30% of earned income. how much money do you make, and where do you think you fit into this equation.

i would believe that there is a similar pattern in New Jersey, if you drive around in Bergen or Morris Counties or down in Princeton, just to name a few areas, the homes and the cars sitting in the driveways are incredible. however if you venture into Hudson County or into Newark, parts of the Oranges, or some other areas, people are piled up on top of each other and certainly do not lead the same lives with the same opportunities in regards to school or local government systems.

in America today there is an ever growing disparity between the middle and upper classes. do you think this is a problem?

[wackydream]

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/07/nyregion/07CENS.html?todaysheadlines

in case the link doesnt work/you dont have a nytimes account:

A Tight Call as New Jersey Celebrates Its Affluence

By JANNY SCOTT

hich state is the richest?

It looked yesterday as if New Jersey had hit the jackpot, at least according to news reports on an experimental Census Bureau survey in which a sampling of people across the country were asked a lot of questions about such things as whether they had a flush toilet in their mobile home, what kind of fuel they used and how much money they had made the previous year.

"A State of Affluence," one New Jersey front page crowed. "A Land of Plenty," said another. The nation's "epicenter of affluence" had "shifted a few golf courses to the southwest, to New Jersey," readers were informed. Even the state's Department of Labor concluded, "New Jersey's median household income ranked as the highest in the nation."

Connecticut, the suggestion went, was slipping. And look who was on top. Never mind that New Jersey, Connecticut and Alaska have had the highest median household incomes for years, and that their numbers are too close to be reliably ranked.

And never mind that Connecticut's per capita income still tops New Jersey's, and that the Census Bureau itself had warned that the numbers from the new survey, conducted in 2000, might not be strictly comparable with earlier ones.

"Scientifically speaking, if you tested for statistical significance, the difference between New Jersey and Connecticut most likely would not be statistically significant," said Kirby Posey, a survey statistician in the income surveys branch of the Census Bureau. "When you're looking at rankings like this, you have to be careful."

James W. Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, said that any difference between the two states' household-income figures was minimal.

"If you're No. 1 or No. 2 or No. 3, you're still very affluent," he said. "So the few dollars' difference between them on per capita income and median household income really does not differentiate one strongly from the other."

The numbers came from something confusingly called the Census 2000 Supplementary Survey, which is not the 2000 census but rather a test of a new way of collecting detailed census data. Under the program being tested, to go into effect later in the decade, the bureau would collect detailed data from a national sample of three million households each year.

According to the numbers made public yesterday, the estimate of New Jersey's median household income in the previous year was $54,226. Connecticut's was $53,108 and Alaska's $52,876. But because of the uncertainty of those figures — given the limitations of any such surveys — the ranges of certainty for all three states overlapped.

Mr. Posey and others said it was not possible to reliably rank median household incomes from those three states because of the overlap. Mr. Posey said, "You can say with statistical certainty that New Jersey's was higher than Nebraska's, but you can't say with certainty that New Jersey's was higher than Connecticut's."

"Connecticut has always been No. 1 in per capita income and New Jersey is usually second or third in per capita," Mr. Hughes said. "But on the annual Current Population Survey data, New Jersey's household and family income is usually higher than Connecticut's. So it's not surprising that New Jersey has the highest median household income."

Both measures are important methods of calculating overall wealth, he said. And both are used widely in such things as placing new stores and marketing services and products.

As for which state is now more lucrative territory, Mr. Hughes said yesterday, "Any chain worth its salt is going to want to be in both markets."

[saigray]

Originally posted by sd

think about this, of all the income in New York City's 5 boroughs, 2% of the people, create and and take home 70% of the revenue. 98% of the people split the remaining 30% of earned income. how much money do you make, and where do you think you fit into this equation.

Well put, thank you for keeping me from feeling like the only boardmember with commie leanings! But seriously, when you think of how much money there is in NY, the poverty that is balancing that is huge. And CT, 2nd richest, has the richest suburbs in the US (mostly NY businessmen) and the POOREST inner cities! Talk about class wars waiting to happen. What r the taxes of the 2nd richest state doing- beautifying Greenwhich's mailboxes?

[back2basics-]

Yeh but with all those tolls you need it;)

[wackydream]

new jersey is a useless state! historically, too - most of the original 13 colonies were created for a reason, like religious freedom up in the new england states, and georgia (im not 100 sure on this one, its been a while since ive taken US history) as a "rehabilitation"place for ex-cons...new jersey was a freakin accident, it had no purpose, it was a little peace of useless land that new york didnt want...and all you jersey people - im not trying to start a war here, but you gotta agree that its a pretty dull place to live. as is brooklyn.

[echostar]

Originally posted by ldoan

It could mean that 10% of the people living in Jersey make a shit load of money and that helps bring the average income up.

this isnt the average...its the median