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ZIP Code Destiny

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    Chapter 4.3 · Two ladders, one street · Report

    Race, income and mobility

    White children from low-income families born in 1978 to 1983 reached a higher adult income rank than Black children raised in the same tract in 92.5% of the 30,997 tracts where both are estimated.

    Every estimate of the chapter with its interval and every figure as a table, generated from the chapter's data files. Table n of this report is figure n of the chapter. The same report as Markdown: report.md.

    Identification

    Title
    Race, income and mobility
    Label
    Two ladders, one street
    Chapter
    4.3 (Part IV, Becoming an adult; An American life)
    Question
    How much does a child's adult income depend on the tract where the child grew up, on parental income and on race, and what predicts upward mobility across counties?
    Dek
    White children from low-income families born in 1978 to 1983 reached a higher adult income rank than Black children raised in the same tract in 92.5% of the 30,997 tracts where both are estimated.
    Grain
    neighborhoods
    Status
    published
    Published
    Updated
    not revised
    Data sources
    • Opportunity Atlas. Tract and county outcomes of children born 1978 to 1983, native 2010 tracts, ranks as percentiles; income measured in 2014 to 2015; years: 1978-1983 birth cohorts (2018 release); weights: 2010 census tract population for tract comparisons; county population for county summaries
    • Social Capital Atlas. Economic connectedness and network measures, county and ZIP code, 2022; years: 2022 (friendship snapshot); weights: 2018 population (Social Capital Atlas)
    • County Health Rankings. County Health Rankings 2024: life expectancy by race (deaths 2019 to 2021), premature death by race, Black-white residential segregation; years: 2024 release; weights: county total population; each county once where stated
    • American Community Survey. ACS 2019 to 2023 tract file, aggregated to counties for the connectedness regression; years: 2019-2023 (5-year); weights: 2019-2023 tract population
    • USDA Food Access Research Atlas. 2010 census population of each 2010 tract, from the Food Access Research Atlas file; the food-access flags are not used; years: 2019 release (population from the 2010 census); weights: none (census counts); used as the weight for tract comparisons
    Canonical URL
    https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/race-income-and-mobility
    Markdown
    https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/race-income-and-mobility/report.md
    BibTeX
    @misc{singh2026raceincomeandmobility,
      author = {Singh, Vishal},
      title = {Race, income and mobility},
      year = {2026},
      url = {https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/race-income-and-mobility},
      note = {In ZIP Code Destiny. Published 9 October 2026.}
    }

    Principal estimates

    The facts the dek and the opening prose cite, in order of appearance. Every fact is in the table of all estimates below.

    EstimandPopulationPeriodValueIntervalnWeightsSourceFact id
    share of tracts (each tract counted once) where white children reach a higher mean adult rank than Black children, county-bootstrap intervalchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in tracts where the Atlas estimates both white and Black childrenchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201592.5%95% CI 91.9% to 93.0%30,997 tractsnone (each tract counts once)Opportunity Atlaspct_below
    count of tracts2010 census tracts with a mean adult income rank for white and for Black children from low-income families and a recorded 2010 populationchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201530,997none (full count)Opportunity Atlasn_tracts_lad
    mean adult household income rank, population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalwhite children raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution), in tracts where the Atlas also estimates Black childrenchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201544.995% CI 44.5 to 45.330,997 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlaskfr_white
    mean adult household income rank, population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalBlack children raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution), in tracts where the Atlas also estimates white childrenchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201534.695% CI 34.3 to 34.930,997 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlaskfr_black
    mean over tracts of the white minus Black gap in adult income rank, population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in tracts where the Atlas estimates both white and Black childrenchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201510.395% CI 10.0 to 10.630,997 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlaskfr_gap

    Findings

    White children from low-income families reached a higher adult income rank than Black children from low-income families raised in the same census tract in 92.5%92.5% percent of tracts in which the white children's mean rank is higherEstimandshare of tracts (each tract counted once) where white children reach a higher mean adult rank than Black children, county-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 91.9% to 93.0%n30,997 tractsWeightsnone (each tract counts once)Populationchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in tracts where the Atlas estimates both white and Black childrenPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity AtlasNoteWeighting tracts by 2010 population gives a similar share. of the 30,99730,997 tractsEstimandcount of tractsWeightsnone (full count)Population2010 census tracts with a mean adult income rank for white and for Black children from low-income families and a recorded 2010 populationPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas tracts where the Opportunity Atlas estimates both groups.[1] The mean rank, weighted by tract population, was 44.944.9 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodEstimandmean adult household income rank, population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 44.5 to 45.3n30,997 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationwhite children raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution), in tracts where the Atlas also estimates Black childrenPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity AtlasNoteCounting each tract once gives a similar mean. for white children and 34.634.6 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodEstimandmean adult household income rank, population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 34.3 to 34.9n30,997 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationBlack children raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution), in tracts where the Atlas also estimates white childrenPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity AtlasNoteCounting each tract once gives a similar mean. for Black children, a gap of 10.3 (95% CI 10.0 to 10.6)10.3 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, white minus BlackEstimandmean over tracts of the white minus Black gap in adult income rank, population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 10.0 to 10.6n30,997 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in tracts where the Atlas estimates both white and Black childrenPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity AtlasNoteCounting each tract once gives a similar gap. percentile points. Both groups were born in 1978 to 1983 to parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution, and the rank is the position they reached in the national distribution of household incomeIncome rank (kfr)The position that adult children reach in the national distribution of household income, from the lowest rank to the highest, averaged over children who grew up in a place with parents at a stated income level. The Opportunity Atlas labels this measure kfr. in their thirties.

    Comparing two groups inside one tract removes the differences between neighborhoods that a county or ZIP code average mixes in. The chapter applies the same logic to parental income and to life expectancy within counties, and it asks what predicts upward mobility across counties. Every Atlas figure describes children who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, and none describes the same tracts today.

    Upward mobility across counties

    The Atlas follows the children of each tract from childhood into adult tax and census records, so it can map how far children from a given parental income level rise.[1] For parents at the 25th percentile, the mean adult rank in a county averages 41.341.3 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodEstimandpopulation-weighted mean of the county valuesn3,136 countiesWeightscounty population in County Health Rankings 2024Populationcounties with an estimate for children raised at the 25th percentile of the national income distributionPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas across counties weighted by population. It runs from 34.934.9 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodEstimandpopulation-weighted 5th percentile of the county valuesn3,136 countiesWeightscounty population in County Health Rankings 2024Populationcounties with an estimate for children raised at the 25th percentile of the national income distributionPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas in the county at the fifth percentile to 48.448.4 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodEstimandpopulation-weighted 95th percentile of the county valuesn3,136 countiesWeightscounty population in County Health Rankings 2024Populationcounties with an estimate for children raised at the 25th percentile of the national income distributionPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas in the county at the ninety-fifth.

    Among the states, means are highest in North Dakota (53.353.3 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodEstimandstate mean of the county values, weighted by county populationn53 countiesWeightscounty population in County Health Rankings 2024Populationcounties with an estimate for children raised at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution in the state with the highest mean, among the 50 states (DC left out)Periodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas) and lowest in South Carolina (35.935.9 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodEstimandstate mean of the county values, weighted by county populationn46 countiesWeightscounty population in County Health Rankings 2024Populationcounties with an estimate for children raised at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution in the state with the lowest mean, among the 50 states (DC left out)Periodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas). The highest state means lie in the Plains and the Mountain West, and the lowest lie in the Southeast (Table 1). The District of Columbia, a single county that is left out of that ranking, has a lower value than any state, 34.934.9 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodEstimandcounty value from the Opportunity Atlasn1 countiesWeightsnone (one county)Populationchildren raised in low-income families in the District of Columbia, a single county that is left out of the ranking of statesPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas. The map averages over every child in a county, and the next section separates two groups of them.

    Black and white children from the same tract

    Because the Atlas reports outcomes by race, it can place children of two groups in one tractCensus tractA small area drawn by the Census Bureau to stand in for a neighborhood. Boundaries are redrawn after each decennial census., with parents at the same income percentile, and compare them. Table 2 plots one dot per tract. If a tract gave children of both groups the same outcome, its dot would sit on the diagonal. The dot sits below the diagonal in 92.5%92.5% percent of tracts in which the white children's mean rank is higherEstimandshare of tracts (each tract counted once) where white children reach a higher mean adult rank than Black children, county-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 91.9% to 93.0%n30,997 tractsWeightsnone (each tract counts once)Populationchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in tracts where the Atlas estimates both white and Black childrenPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity AtlasNoteWeighting tracts by 2010 population gives a similar share. of the tracts. A tract has both estimates only where the Atlas can measure enough children of each group, so these tracts are those with sizeable Black and white populations and not a sample of all tracts. They hold 144.8 million144.8 million peopleEstimandsum of 2010 census tract populationWeightsnone (full count)Populationresidents of the tracts in the same-tract comparisonPeriod2010 censusSourceOpportunity Atlas people, 46.9%46.9% percent of the 2010 U.S. populationEstimandpopulation of the same-tract comparison tracts as a share of the U.S. populationWeightsnone (full count)Populationresidents of the United StatesPeriod2010 censusSourceOpportunity Atlas of the 2010 population. The Atlas keeps Hispanic children, of any race, apart from non-Hispanic white, Black and Asian children, and the white, Black and Asian children in this chapter are non-Hispanic.[2]

    The gap is wider where white children do best, though by less than a tract-by-tract comparison suggests. Averaging the tracts within each county damps the noise in the tract estimates, and 336336 countiesEstimandcount of counties in the county version of the comparisonWeightsnone (full count)Populationchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in counties with at least 20 tracts that have both estimatesPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas counties have at least 2020 tractsEstimandminimum number of tracts with both estimates for a county to enter the county versionWeightsnone (inclusion rule)Populationcounties in the county version of the comparisonPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas tracts with both estimates. In the lowest-ranked third of these counties by white rank, white children ranked 8.4 (95% CI 8.1 to 8.7)8.4 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, white minus BlackEstimandmean of the county white minus Black gap in adult income rank within a third of counties (equal numbers of counties, ranked by the county mean white rank), weighted by 2010 population summed to the county, state-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 8.1 to 8.7n112 countiesWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in counties with at least 20 tracts that have both estimates, in the third of those counties with the lowest mean rank for white childrenPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas points above Black children, and in the highest-ranked third they ranked 11.6 (95% CI 10.8 to 12.1)11.6 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, white minus BlackEstimandmean of the county white minus Black gap in adult income rank within a third of counties (equal numbers of counties, ranked by the county mean white rank), weighted by 2010 population summed to the county, state-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 10.8 to 12.1n112 countiesWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in counties with at least 20 tracts that have both estimates, in the third of those counties with the highest mean rank for white childrenPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas points above. Across the counties, each point of difference in the white rank goes with a difference of 0.60 (95% CI 0.49 to 0.71)0.60 percentile points of Black children's rank per point of white children's rankEstimandslope of the county mean Black rank on the county mean white rank, weighted by 2010 population summed to the county, state-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 0.49 to 0.71n336 countiesWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in counties with at least 20 tracts that have both estimatesPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas points in the Black rank. Where white children rank higher, Black children rank higher too, by a smaller amount.

    Sorting tracts on the white rank itself gives a larger contrast, 5.65.6 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, white minus BlackEstimandmean white minus Black gap in adult income rank within a third of tracts (equal numbers of tracts, ranked by the white rank), population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 5.4 to 5.8n10,332 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in tracts where the Atlas estimates both white and Black children in the third of tracts with the lowest mean rank for white childrenPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity AtlasNoteSorting on the noisy white rank itself builds part of this contrast into the thirds. points in the lowest-ranked third and 14.814.8 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, white minus BlackEstimandmean white minus Black gap in adult income rank within a third of tracts (equal numbers of tracts, ranked by the white rank), population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 14.4 to 15.2n10,333 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in tracts where the Atlas estimates both white and Black children in the third of tracts with the highest mean rank for white childrenPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity AtlasNoteSorting on the noisy white rank itself builds part of this contrast into the thirds. in the highest, and a slope of 0.330.33 percentile points of Black children's rank per point of white children's rankEstimandslope of the tract's Black rank on its white rank, population-weighted, county-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 0.30 to 0.36n30,997 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in tracts where the Atlas estimates both white and Black childrenPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity AtlasNoteSampling noise in the white rank pulls this slope toward zero by an amount the staged data cannot size; the county slope averages that noise away.. Noise in the white estimate both sorts the tracts and enters the white minus Black difference, so the tract figures overstate the contrast.

    Each tract's estimate for a group rests on a modest number of children, and noise is added to protect privacy. Noise of that kind spreads dots in both directions around the diagonal. It would pull the share of tracts below the diagonal toward an even split, not away from one.

    The comparison is not limited to two groups. In tracts where white and Hispanic children are both estimated, Hispanic children ranked 2.6 (95% CI 2.3 to 2.9)2.6 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, white minus HispanicEstimandmean over tracts of the white minus Hispanic gap in adult income rank, population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 2.3 to 2.9n35,579 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in tracts where the Atlas estimates both white and Hispanic childrenPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas points below white children. In tracts where white and Asian children are both estimated, Asian children ranked 9.4 (95% CI 8.9 to 9.8)9.4 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, Asian minus whiteEstimandmean over tracts of the Asian minus white gap in adult income rank, population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 8.9 to 9.8n15,078 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in tracts where the Atlas estimates both white and Asian childrenPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas points above them (Table 3). Each comparison uses its own set of tracts, so the three gaps are not measured on one set of tracts. The Atlas also measures incarceration on Census Day 2010, and Chapter 3.4, School discipline and incarceration reports the same-tract comparison for that outcome.

    The advantage of a higher-income family, tract by tract

    The Atlas also reports adult ranks for children whose parents were at the 75th percentile, with races pooled. The difference between that rank and the rank of children at the 25th percentile is a tract-level measure of the advantage of a higher-income family, which this chapter calls the premium. Across 71,92471,924 tractsEstimandcount of tractsWeightsnone (full count)Population2010 census tracts with a mean adult income rank for both parental income levels and a recorded 2010 populationPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas tracts the mean rank was 43.243.2 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodEstimandmean adult household income rank, population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 42.9 to 43.5n71,924 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution, races pooledPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas for children at the 25th percentile and 56.856.8 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodEstimandmean adult household income rank, population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 56.4 to 57.2n71,924 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised at the 75th percentile of the national income distribution, races pooledPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas for children at the 75th, a premium of 13.6 (95% CI 13.2 to 13.9)13.6 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, 75th-percentile parents minus 25th-percentile parentsEstimandmean over tracts of the 75th minus the 25th percentile family rank (the born-rich premium), population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 13.2 to 13.9n71,924 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised in families at the 25th and the 75th percentile of the national income distribution, in tracts where the Atlas estimates bothPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas points.

    The premium varies across tracts, from 5.85.8 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, 75th-percentile parents minus 25th-percentile parentsEstimandpopulation-weighted 5th percentile of the tract premiumn71,924 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised in families at the 25th and the 75th percentile of the national income distribution, in tracts where the Atlas estimates bothPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity AtlasNoteTract estimates carry sampling and privacy noise, which widens this spread. at the fifth percentile of tracts to 21.321.3 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, 75th-percentile parents minus 25th-percentile parentsEstimandpopulation-weighted 95th percentile of the tract premiumn71,924 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised in families at the 25th and the 75th percentile of the national income distribution, in tracts where the Atlas estimates bothPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity AtlasNoteTract estimates carry sampling and privacy noise, which widens this spread. at the ninety-fifth, and sampling noise in the tract estimates widens that range. The premium is smaller where children from low-income families do better. Across tracts, the rank of children at the 75th percentile rises 0.69 (95% CI 0.66 to 0.72)0.69 percentile points of the 75th-percentile family's rank per point of the 25th-percentile family's rankEstimandslope of the tract's 75th-percentile rank on its 25th-percentile rank, population-weighted, county-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 0.66 to 0.72n71,924 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised in families at the 25th and the 75th percentile of the national income distribution, in tracts where the Atlas estimates bothPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas points for each point of the rank of children at the 25th, a line flatter than the diagonal in Table 4. The two ladders sit closer together in tracts where the lower ladder is higher.

    Sampling noise in the rank of children at the 25th percentile pulls a tract slope toward zero, so the slope is also estimated on county averages. It is 0.70 (95% CI 0.60 to 0.82)0.70 percentile points of the 75th-percentile family's rank per point of the 25th-percentile family's rankEstimandslope of the county mean 75th-percentile rank on the county mean 25th-percentile rank, weighted by 2010 population, state-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 0.60 to 0.82n1,172 countiesWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationcounties with at least 10 tracts in the premium samplePeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity AtlasNoteAveraging tracts within counties damps sampling noise in the tract estimates; the slope rises with the minimum number of tracts. for counties with at least 1010 tractsEstimandminimum number of tracts with both estimates for a county to enter the slopeWeightsnone (inclusion rule)Populationcounties in the county-level premium slopePeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas tracts and 0.81 (95% CI 0.69 to 0.91)0.81 percentile points of the 75th-percentile family's rank per point of the 25th-percentile family's rankEstimandslope of the county mean 75th-percentile rank on the county mean 25th-percentile rank, weighted by 2010 population, state-bootstrap intervalInterval95% CI 0.69 to 0.91n148 countiesWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationcounties with at least 100 tracts in the premium samplePeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas for counties with at least 100100 tractsEstimandminimum number of tracts with both estimates for a county to be rankedWeightsnone (inclusion rule)Populationcounties ranked on the premiumPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas tracts, higher than the tract slope and still flatter than the diagonal.

    Among the 148148 countiesEstimandcount of counties with the minimum number of tractsWeightsnone (full count)Populationcounties with enough tracts to rank on the premiumPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas counties with at least 100100 tractsEstimandminimum number of tracts with both estimates for a county to be rankedWeightsnone (inclusion rule)Populationcounties ranked on the premiumPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas tracts, the premium is smallest in the Bronx (8.08.0 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, 75th-percentile parents minus 25th-percentile parentsEstimandpopulation-weighted mean of the tract premium within the countyn328 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationthe county with the smallest premium, among counties with at least 100 tractsPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas). The 88 countiesEstimandnumber of counties with the smallest premiums examined for their locationWeightsnone (rule)Populationcounties ranked on the premiumPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas smallest premiums are all in New York City or California, among them San Francisco (8.98.9 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, 75th-percentile parents minus 25th-percentile parentsEstimandpopulation-weighted mean of the tract premium within the countyn193 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationSan Francisco County, California, among counties with at least 100 tractsPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas).

    The premium is largest in Hamilton County, Ohio (17.317.3 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, 75th-percentile parents minus 25th-percentile parentsEstimandpopulation-weighted mean of the tract premium within the countyn222 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationthe county with the largest premium, among counties with at least 100 tractsPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas), and Luzerne County, Pennsylvania (16.916.9 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, 75th-percentile parents minus 25th-percentile parentsEstimandpopulation-weighted mean of the tract premium within the countyn103 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationLuzerne County, Pennsylvania, among counties with at least 100 tractsPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas). A small premium is not a sign of a better place for children from low-income families. In the Bronx, children at the 25th percentile reached a mean rank of 39.939.9 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodEstimandpopulation-weighted mean adult household income rank over the county's tractsn328 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution in Bronx CountyPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas and children at the 75th percentile reached 47.947.9 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodEstimandpopulation-weighted mean adult household income rank over the county's tractsn328 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised at the 75th percentile of the national income distribution in Bronx CountyPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas, both below the mean for all tracts. In San Francisco the ranks were 50.350.3 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodEstimandpopulation-weighted mean adult household income rank over the county's tractsn193 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution in San Francisco CountyPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas and 59.259.2 percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodEstimandpopulation-weighted mean adult household income rank over the county's tractsn193 tractsWeights2010 census tract populationPopulationchildren raised at the 75th percentile of the national income distribution in San Francisco CountyPeriodchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015SourceOpportunity Atlas, both above it.

    Friendships across incomes and upward mobility

    Across counties, upward mobility moves with who a place's residents befriend. The Social Capital Atlas builds economic connectednessEconomic connectednessA measure of friendship across class lines, based on the share of high-status friends among people below the median in socioeconomic status. It is scaled so that friendships mixing in proportion to the population give the reference value. from the friendships of Facebook users. It compares the share of high-status friends among people with below-median status to the share expected if friendships ignored status.[3] Across 2,9422,942 countiesEstimandcount of counties with economic connectedness and a mobility rankWeightsnone (full count)Populationcounties with a Social Capital Atlas measure and an Opportunity Atlas mobility rankPeriodfriendships among Facebook users in 2022; mobility for children born 1978 to 1983SourceSocial Capital Atlas counties, economic connectedness correlates +0.69 (95% CI 0.64 to 0.74)+0.69 correlation coefficientEstimandpopulation-weighted correlation of the county economic connectedness with the county mobility rank, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI 0.64 to 0.74n2,942 countiesWeights2018 county population (Social Capital Atlas)Populationcounties with a Social Capital Atlas measure and an Opportunity Atlas mobility rankPeriodfriendships among Facebook users in 2022; mobility for children born 1978 to 1983SourceSocial Capital Atlas with the mean adult rank of children from low-income families, weighted by population.

    That correlation is larger than the correlation of any civic or cohesion measure with mobility (Table 5). The density of civic organizations correlates +0.06 (95% CI −0.01 to 0.14)+0.06 correlation coefficientEstimandpopulation-weighted correlation of the county civic organizations with the county mobility rank, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI −0.01 to 0.14n2,983 countiesWeights2018 county population (Social Capital Atlas)Populationcounties with a Social Capital Atlas measure and an Opportunity Atlas mobility rankPeriodfriendships among Facebook users in 2022; mobility for children born 1978 to 1983SourceSocial Capital Atlas with it, the volunteering rate +0.19 (95% CI 0.12 to 0.25)+0.19 correlation coefficientEstimandpopulation-weighted correlation of the county volunteering rate with the county mobility rank, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI 0.12 to 0.25n2,983 countiesWeights2018 county population (Social Capital Atlas)Populationcounties with a Social Capital Atlas measure and an Opportunity Atlas mobility rankPeriodfriendships among Facebook users in 2022; mobility for children born 1978 to 1983SourceSocial Capital Atlas and the network support ratio −0.25 (95% CI −0.33 to −0.17)−0.25 correlation coefficientEstimandpopulation-weighted correlation of the county support ratio with the county mobility rank, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI −0.33 to −0.17n2,983 countiesWeights2018 county population (Social Capital Atlas)Populationcounties with a Social Capital Atlas measure and an Opportunity Atlas mobility rankPeriodfriendships among Facebook users in 2022; mobility for children born 1978 to 1983SourceSocial Capital Atlas. Civic participation is the subject of Chapter 6.2, Civic life, loneliness and partnership.

    Connectedness also moves with income. Across 18,89618,896 ZIP code areasEstimandcount of ZIP codes (ZCTAs) in the comparisonWeightsnone (full count)PopulationZIP code areas (ZCTAs) with an economic connectedness value and a median household incomePeriodfriendships among Facebook users in 2022SourceSocial Capital Atlas ZIP code areas (ZCTAsZCTAZIP Code Tabulation Area, the Census Bureau's approximation of a ZIP code as a set of census blocks. It lets census data be reported by ZIP code, though some ZIP codes have no matching ZCTA.), economic connectedness correlates +0.82 (95% CI 0.81 to 0.83)+0.82 correlation coefficientEstimandpopulation-weighted correlation of ZIP economic connectedness with the ZIP's percentile rank of median household income, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI 0.81 to 0.83n18,896 ZIP code areasWeights2018 ZIP population (Social Capital Atlas)PopulationZIP code areas (ZCTAs) with an economic connectedness value and a median household incomePeriodfriendships among Facebook users in 2022; income ACS 2019 to 2023SourceSocial Capital Atlas with the area's rank in median household income. Its mean is 0.57 (95% CI 0.56 to 0.58)0.57 economic connectedness (ratio)Estimandpopulation-weighted mean of ZIP economic connectedness, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI 0.56 to 0.58n1,889 ZIP code areasWeights2018 ZIP population (Social Capital Atlas)PopulationZIP code areas (ZCTAs) in the lowest tenth of median household incomePeriodfriendships among Facebook users in 2022; income ACS 2019 to 2023SourceSocial Capital Atlas in the lowest tenth of areas by median income and 1.19 (95% CI 1.16 to 1.21)1.19 economic connectedness (ratio)Estimandpopulation-weighted mean of ZIP economic connectedness, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI 1.16 to 1.21n1,890 ZIP code areasWeights2018 ZIP population (Social Capital Atlas)PopulationZIP code areas (ZCTAs) in the highest tenth of median household incomePeriodfriendships among Facebook users in 2022; income ACS 2019 to 2023SourceSocial Capital Atlas in the highest tenth. Because connectedness is higher where incomes are higher, the county correlation could partly reflect income.

    A weighted regression puts the log of median household income, the Black share of residents, the share with a college degree and the poverty rate beside connectedness. In it, the standardized coefficient on economic connectedness is 0.56 (95% CI 0.42 to 0.70)0.56 standard deviations of the county mobility rank per standard deviation of the measureEstimandstandardized coefficient on economic connectedness in a weighted regression with controls for log median income, percent Black, percent with a college degree and percent below poverty, errors clustered on stateInterval95% CI 0.42 to 0.70n2,933 countiesWeights2018 county population (Social Capital Atlas)Populationcounties with a Social Capital Atlas measure and an Opportunity Atlas mobility rank and ACS controls (Connecticut left out)Periodfriendships among Facebook users in 2022; mobility for children born 1978 to 1983; ACS 2019 to 2023SourceSocial Capital Atlas and the coefficient on the log of income is 0.46 (95% CI 0.26 to 0.67)0.46 standard deviations of the county mobility rank per standard deviation of the measureEstimandstandardized coefficient on the log of median household income in a weighted regression with controls for log median income, percent Black, percent with a college degree and percent below poverty, errors clustered on stateInterval95% CI 0.26 to 0.67n2,933 countiesWeights2018 county population (Social Capital Atlas)Populationcounties with a Social Capital Atlas measure and an Opportunity Atlas mobility rank and ACS controls (Connecticut left out)Periodfriendships among Facebook users in 2022; mobility for children born 1978 to 1983; ACS 2019 to 2023SourceSocial Capital Atlas. The difference between them is 0.10 (95% CI −0.16 to 0.36)0.10 standard deviations of the county mobility rank per standard deviation of the measureEstimandstandardized coefficient on economic connectedness minus the coefficient on log median income, same regression, errors clustered on stateInterval95% CI −0.16 to 0.36n2,933 countiesWeights2018 county population (Social Capital Atlas)Populationcounties with a Social Capital Atlas measure and an Opportunity Atlas mobility rank and ACS controls (Connecticut left out)Periodfriendships among Facebook users in 2022; mobility for children born 1978 to 1983; ACS 2019 to 2023SourceSocial Capital Atlas, and its interval includes zero, so the data do not rank the two. The coefficient on connectedness stays positive with income in the model.

    Economic connectedness is measured in 2022, long after the 1978 to 1983 cohorts grew up. The correlation links a recent network measure to an earlier cohort, and the data cannot show that friendships across incomes change a child's later income.

    Life expectancy of Black and white residents of the same county

    The comparison inside one place extends to adult health. In County Health Rankings, 1,2651,265 countiesEstimandcount of counties with both estimatesWeightsnone (full count)Populationcounties with both a non-Hispanic white and a non-Hispanic Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings counties publish a life expectancy for both non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic Black residents, for deaths in 2019 to 2021.[4] White life expectancy exceeds Black by 4.4 (95% CI 4.0 to 4.8)4.4 years of life expectancy at birth, non-Hispanic white minus non-Hispanic BlackEstimandmean of the county non-Hispanic white minus non-Hispanic Black gap in life expectancy, weighted by county population, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI 4.0 to 4.8n1,265 countiesWeightscounty total populationPopulationcounties with both a non-Hispanic white and a non-Hispanic Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health RankingsNoteCounty Health Rankings publishes a race-specific life expectancy only where deaths are numerous enough. These 1,265 counties hold 98 percent of the non-Hispanic Black residents of all counties in the file. Interval: bootstrap over counties. years when counties count in proportion to their population, and by 3.5 (95% CI 3.3 to 3.7)3.5 years of life expectancy at birth, non-Hispanic white minus non-Hispanic BlackEstimandmean of the county non-Hispanic white minus non-Hispanic Black gap in life expectancy, each county counted once, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI 3.3 to 3.7n1,265 countiesWeightsnone (each county counts once)Populationcounties with both a non-Hispanic white and a non-Hispanic Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health RankingsNoteCounty Health Rankings publishes a race-specific life expectancy only where deaths are numerous enough. These 1,265 counties hold 98 percent of the non-Hispanic Black residents of all counties in the file. Interval: bootstrap over counties. years when each county counts once.

    The population-weightedPopulation-weightedAveraged so that each place counts in proportion to its number of residents, which lets a large county move the result more than a small one. An unweighted average counts every place equally. means are 78.178.1 years of life expectancy at birthEstimandmean of county life expectancy, weighted by county population, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI 77.8 to 78.4n1,265 countiesWeightscounty total populationPopulationwhite residents of the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings years for white residents and 73.773.7 years of life expectancy at birthEstimandmean of county life expectancy, weighted by county population, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI 73.4 to 74.1n1,265 countiesWeightscounty total populationPopulationBlack residents of the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings years for Black residents. White life expectancy is the higher in 89%89% percent of countiesEstimandshare of counties where non-Hispanic white life expectancy exceeds non-Hispanic Black life expectancyn1,265 countiesWeightsnone (each county counts once)Populationcounties with both a non-Hispanic white and a non-Hispanic Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings of these counties, and the counties hold 98%98% percent of non-Hispanic Black residentsEstimandshare of non-Hispanic Black residents living in counties with both race-specific estimatesn3,143 countiesWeightscounty population times its non-Hispanic Black sharePopulationresidents of the counties in County Health RankingsPeriodCounty Health Rankings 2024 release (population estimates for 2022)SourceCounty Health Rankings of the non-Hispanic Black residents of all counties in the file.

    Table 6 shows the 2020 countiesEstimandnumber of counties drawn in the dumbbell figureWeightsnone (rule)Populationmost populous counties in the life-expectancy samplePerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings most populous counties in that sample. The gap is positive in each, from 1.1 (95% CI 0.7 to 1.5)1.1 years of life expectancy at birth, white minus BlackEstimandwhite minus Black county life expectancy; the interval combines County Health Rankings' two 95% intervals assuming independenceInterval95% CI 0.7 to 1.5Weightsnone (one county)Populationresidents of Broward County, FL, the county with the smallest gap among the most populous countiesPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings years in Broward County, Florida, to 9.9 (95% CI 9.7 to 10.2)9.9 years of life expectancy at birth, white minus BlackEstimandwhite minus Black county life expectancy; the interval combines County Health Rankings' two 95% intervals assuming independenceInterval95% CI 9.7 to 10.2Weightsnone (one county)Populationresidents of Cook County, IllinoisPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings years in Cook County, Illinois. Among all 1,2651,265 countiesEstimandcount of counties with both estimatesWeightsnone (full count)Populationcounties with both a non-Hispanic white and a non-Hispanic Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings counties, the widest gap is in the District of Columbia, at 17.7 (95% CI 17.0 to 18.3)17.7 years of life expectancy at birth, white minus BlackEstimandwhite minus Black county life expectancy; the interval combines County Health Rankings' two 95% intervals assuming independenceInterval95% CI 17.0 to 18.3Weightsnone (one county)Populationresidents of the District of ColumbiaPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings years.

    In 140140 countiesEstimandcount of counties where Black life expectancy is higher than whiteWeightsnone (full count)Populationcounties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings counties the estimate for Black residents is the higher. County Health Rankings publishes an interval for each estimate. The two intervals separate in that direction in only 99 countiesEstimandcount of counties where the 95% interval for Black life expectancy lies entirely above the interval for white life expectancyWeightsnone (full count)Populationcounties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings counties, against 677677 countiesEstimandcount of counties where the 95% interval for white life expectancy lies entirely above the interval for Black life expectancyWeightsnone (full count)Populationcounties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings counties where the interval for white residents lies entirely above the interval for Black residents. The counties with a higher Black estimate have a median population of 59,03959,039 peopleEstimandmedian of county total populationn140 countiesWeightsnone (median over counties)Populationresidents of the counties where the Black estimate is the higherPeriodcounty population in County Health Rankings 2024SourceCounty Health Rankings, below the 82,91182,911 peopleEstimandmedian of county total populationn1,265 countiesWeightsnone (median over counties)Populationresidents of all the counties in the samplePeriodcounty population in County Health Rankings 2024SourceCounty Health Rankings median of the sample, which is consistent with noisier estimates in smaller counties.

    The gap extends to premature mortality, which County Health Rankings measures as age-adjusted deaths of residents under age 7575 years of ageEstimandage limit in the definition of premature death (deaths before this age)Weightsnone (definition)Populationdeaths counted as premature in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings per hundred thousand residents. Across 1,2421,242 countiesEstimandcount of counties in the premature death comparisonWeightsnone (full count)Populationcounties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankings that also report both premature death ratesPerioddeaths before age 75 in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings of these counties that report both rates, the population-weighted mean for Black residents is 1.5 (95% CI 1.5 to 1.6)1.5 ratio of the non-Hispanic Black to the non-Hispanic white premature age-adjusted mortality rate (deaths under age 75 per 100,000)Estimandratio of two county-population-weighted means of the age-adjusted premature death rate per 100,000, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI 1.5 to 1.6n1,242 countiesWeightscounty total populationPopulationcounties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankings that also report both premature death ratesPerioddeaths before age 75 in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings times the mean for white residents. This is a death rate and not the years of potential life lost. Infant mortality by race is covered in Chapter 2.2, Infant mortality.

    The gap is wider where residents are more segregated. The Black-white index of dissimilarity gives the share of either group that would have to move for the two to be spread evenly across tracts. Its population-weighted correlation with the gap is +0.30 (95% CI 0.14 to 0.45)+0.30 correlation coefficientEstimandpopulation-weighted correlation of the white minus Black life-expectancy gap with the index of dissimilarity, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI 0.14 to 0.45n1,260 countiesWeightscounty total populationPopulationcounties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankings that also report the Black-white residential segregation indexPeriodindex from ACS 2018 to 2022; deaths in 2019 to 2021SourceCounty Health Rankings across 1,2601,260 countiesEstimandcount of counties in the segregation comparisonWeightsnone (full count)Populationcounties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankings that also report the Black-white residential segregation indexPeriodindex from ACS 2018 to 2022; deaths in 2019 to 2021SourceCounty Health Rankings counties. Within states, each additional point of the index goes with 0.06 (95% CI 0.00 to 0.12)0.06 years of life-expectancy gap per point of the dissimilarity indexEstimandslope of the gap on the index in a county-population-weighted regression with state fixed effects, errors clustered on stateInterval95% CI 0.00 to 0.12n1,260 countiesWeightscounty total populationPopulationcounties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankings that also report the Black-white residential segregation indexPeriodindex from ACS 2018 to 2022; deaths in 2019 to 2021SourceCounty Health Rankings more years of gap (state fixed effectsFixed effectsA regression adjustment that gives each group, such as each county, its own baseline. The estimate then rests on differences within groups.), and the lower end of that interval is close to zero.

    Race, place and their interaction

    Life expectancy differs across counties and between the two groups, and a decomposition says how much of the variation each source holds. The cells are the county-by-race life expectancies, a white and a Black estimate for each of the 1,2651,265 countiesEstimandcount of counties with both estimatesWeightsnone (full count)Populationcounties with both a non-Hispanic white and a non-Hispanic Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings counties. The variance across the cells splits into three parts. Place is the spread of the county averages, race is the average white-Black gap, and the interaction is the spread of the gap across counties. Weighted by county population, place accounts for 53% (95% CI 48% to 58%)53% percent of the variance of county-by-race life expectancyEstimandshare of the total variance attributed to place (the spread of county averages), weighted by county population, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI 48% to 58%n1,265 countiesWeightscounty total populationPopulationcounty-by-race life expectancy (a white and a Black estimate for each county) in the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings of the variance, race for 31% (95% CI 26% to 37%)31% percent of the variance of county-by-race life expectancyEstimandshare of the total variance attributed to race (the average white-Black gap), weighted by county population, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI 26% to 37%n1,265 countiesWeightscounty total populationPopulationcounty-by-race life expectancy (a white and a Black estimate for each county) in the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings and the interaction for 16% (95% CI 13% to 19%)16% percent of the variance of county-by-race life expectancyEstimandshare of the total variance attributed to the race-by-place interaction (the spread of the gap across counties), weighted by county population, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI 13% to 19%n1,265 countiesWeightscounty total populationPopulationcounty-by-race life expectancy (a white and a Black estimate for each county) in the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings.

    When each county counts once, the shares are 64% (95% CI 62% to 66%)64% percent of the variance of county-by-race life expectancyEstimandshare of the total variance attributed to place (the spread of county averages), each county counted once, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI 62% to 66%n1,265 countiesWeightsnone (each county counts once)Populationcounty-by-race life expectancy (a white and a Black estimate for each county) in the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings for place, 19% (95% CI 17% to 22%)19% percent of the variance of county-by-race life expectancyEstimandshare of the total variance attributed to race (the average white-Black gap), each county counted once, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI 17% to 22%n1,265 countiesWeightsnone (each county counts once)Populationcounty-by-race life expectancy (a white and a Black estimate for each county) in the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings for race and 17% (95% CI 15% to 19%)17% percent of the variance of county-by-race life expectancyEstimandshare of the total variance attributed to the race-by-place interaction (the spread of the gap across counties), each county counted once, bootstrap interval over countiesInterval95% CI 15% to 19%n1,265 countiesWeightsnone (each county counts once)Populationcounty-by-race life expectancy (a white and a Black estimate for each county) in the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings for the interaction. The race share is larger when large counties carry more weight, because the average gap is larger there, so the chapter reports both.

    Weighted by county population, the 90th percentile of Black life expectancy across counties is 78.278.2 years of life expectancy at birthEstimand90th percentile of county Black life expectancy, weighted by county populationn1,265 countiesWeightscounty total populationPopulationBlack residents of the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings years, above the 10th percentile of white life expectancy, 74.474.4 years of life expectancy at birthEstimand10th percentile of county white life expectancy, weighted by county populationn1,265 countiesWeightscounty total populationPopulationwhite residents of the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings years. The two groups' distributions across places overlap, and the white estimate is still the higher in 89%89% percent of countiesEstimandshare of counties where non-Hispanic white life expectancy exceeds non-Hispanic Black life expectancyn1,265 countiesWeightsnone (each county counts once)Populationcounties with both a non-Hispanic white and a non-Hispanic Black life expectancy in County Health RankingsPerioddeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)SourceCounty Health Rankings of counties.

    What these data cannot show

    The patterns here describe tracts, ZIP code areas and counties. The average life expectancy of Black residents of Cook County says little about how long any one Black resident of Cook County will live, because the data are averages for places and groups (ecological inferenceEcological inferenceDrawing conclusions about individuals from data about places or groups. A pattern across counties need not hold for the people inside them.).

    A same-tract comparison removes the differences between neighborhoods but not all differences. Within a tract, families at one income percentile can still differ in wealth, in the exact block, in schooling and in how institutions treat them. The gap is a residual, and the data describe it without explaining it. Chetty, Hendren, Jones and Porter find that the gap in individual adult income between Black and white children raised at the same parental income is concentrated among boys and men. They find it smaller in tracts with lower poverty and a higher share of Black fathers present, a comparison across places and not an experiment.[2] The ranks here pool boys and girls and measure household income, which includes a spouse's income, because race by gender is not available in the staged data (see Chapter 4.4, Boys and mobility (planned)).

    The Atlas estimates are for children born in 1978 to 1983 and observed in 2014 to 2015. Each tract estimate rests on a modest number of children and carries privacy noise, which is not clipped. Tracts weigh in by their 2010 population because the file has no child counts, and the tracts with both estimates are those with enough children of both groups.

    The life-expectancy estimates are computed from death counts that are small in small counties, so the share of counties with a reversed gap and the shares in the decomposition include sampling noise. County Health Rankings counts Black and white residents who are not Hispanic, and the index of dissimilarity is measured for 2018 to 2022. The connectedness measures come from active Facebook users and describe places in 2022, and the regression cannot separate connectedness from income more finely than its interval allows. Puerto Rico has Atlas estimates but is not drawn on the maps, and Connecticut is missing from the regression because its tract codes differ across the files.

    Tables

    Table 1. Children from low-income families reach the highest adult income ranks in the Plains and Mountain West and the lowest in the Southeast

    Mean adult household income rank (percentile) of children born 1978 to 1983 to parents at the 25th income percentile, by county of childhood

    No inline rows: the values of Table 1 are in /data/race-income-and-mobility/mobility_map.json.

    Note: Each gray county has the reason for its missing value in its tooltip. Puerto Rico has estimates in the Atlas but is not drawn.

    Note: The county estimates are model-based and carry privacy noise, so single small counties are noisy. The Atlas lists Connecticut under its legacy counties, which are the eight drawn here, and Valdez-Cordova Census Area (split in 2019) is drawn as its two successors with the same value.

    Note: Alaska is drawn. The Atlas estimates cover 1978 to 1983 birth cohorts and describe where children grew up, not the counties today.

    Source: Opportunity Atlas county outcomes, 1978-1983 birth cohorts; modeled estimates, not weighted

    Data: vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/race-income-and-mobility/figures/mobility_map.json

    Table 2. White children from low-income families reached a higher adult income rank than Black children from the same tract in 92.5% of 30,997 tracts

    Adult household income rank (percentile) of Black children against white children raised in the same census tract by parents at the 25th income percentile, one dot per tract

    No inline rows: the values of Table 2 are in /data/race-income-and-mobility/same_tract_black_white.json.

    Note: The dots are a random sample of 5,000 tracts inside the plotted range (seed 12345); every estimate in the text uses all 30,997 tracts. Tracts have a Black and a white estimate only where the Atlas has enough children of both groups, so they are not a sample of all tracts.

    Note: The markers average the tracts of each county that has at least 20 tracts with both estimates, because sorting tracts on the noisy white rank would flatten a line of tract means and widen the apparent contrast. Each tract is weighted by its 2010 census population, the nearest available stand-in for the number of children. Ranks are percentiles of the national distribution of household income for children born in 1978 to 1983, measured in 2014 to 2015. The Opportunity Atlas adds noise to its estimates to protect privacy and the staged values are never clipped, so a few fall outside 0 to 100.

    Source: Opportunity Atlas tract outcomes, 2010 tracts, 1978-1983 birth cohorts; population-weighted (2010 tract population), modeled estimates

    Data: vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/race-income-and-mobility/figures/same_tract_black_white.json

    Table 3. Black children ranked 10.3 points below white children in the same tracts, Hispanic children 2.6 points below and Asian children 9.4 points above

    Mean adult household income rank of each group minus that of white children raised in the same tract by parents at the 25th income percentile, tracts where both are estimated

    conf_highconf_lowestimategroupn
    −10.03−10.60−10.31Black children30,997
    −2.32−2.92−2.61Hispanic children35,579
    9.838.899.37Asian children15,078

    Note: Each row uses its own set of tracts, the tracts where that group and white children both have an estimate, so the rows are not a single sample. The number of tracts is in each row's tooltip. Ranks are percentiles of the national distribution of household income for children born in 1978 to 1983, measured in 2014 to 2015. The Opportunity Atlas adds noise to its estimates to protect privacy and the staged values are never clipped, so a few fall outside 0 to 100.

    Source: Opportunity Atlas tract outcomes, 2010 tracts, 1978-1983 birth cohorts; population-weighted (2010 tract population), modeled estimates

    Data: vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/race-income-and-mobility/figures/group_gaps_same_tract.json

    Table 4. Children raised at the 75th income percentile reach adult ranks 13.6 points above those raised at the 25th in the same tract, a difference that is smaller where the latter do better

    Adult household income rank (percentile) of children raised at the 75th income percentile against those raised at the 25th, one dot per tract, races pooled

    No inline rows: the values of Table 4 are in /data/race-income-and-mobility/born_rich_premium.json.

    Note: The dots are a random sample of 5,000 tracts inside the plotted range (seed 12345); the means, slope and intervals use all 71,924 tracts with both estimates.

    Note: The fitted line is the population-weighted least-squares line through the tracts, with slope 0.69. Sampling noise in the 25th-percentile rank pulls a tract slope toward zero. Averaging tracts to counties damps that noise: the slope is 0.70 for counties with at least 10 tracts and 0.81 for counties with at least 100, and all of them are flatter than the diagonal. Ranks are percentiles of the national distribution of household income for children born in 1978 to 1983, measured in 2014 to 2015. The Opportunity Atlas adds noise to its estimates to protect privacy and the staged values are never clipped, so a few fall outside 0 to 100.

    Source: Opportunity Atlas tract outcomes, 2010 tracts, 1978-1983 birth cohorts; population-weighted (2010 tract population), modeled estimates

    Data: vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/race-income-and-mobility/figures/born_rich_premium.json

    Table 5. Across counties, economic connectedness correlates +0.69 with upward mobility, more than any civic or cohesion measure

    Population-weighted correlation of each Social Capital Atlas county measure with the mean adult income rank of children from low-income families

    conf_highconf_lowestimategroupmeasuren
    0.7410.6440.693Contact across incomesEconomic connectedness2,942
    0.7340.6500.695Contact across incomesExposure to high-income friends2,939
    −0.076−0.316−0.192Contact across incomesFriending bias2,939
    0.117−0.0120.052CohesionNetwork clustering2,983
    −0.168−0.332−0.254CohesionSupport ratio2,983
    0.2530.1210.187Civic lifeVolunteering rate2,983
    0.138−0.0110.062Civic lifeCivic organizations2,983

    Note: Economic connectedness is built from Facebook friendships among active users in 2022, while the mobility ranks describe children who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, so the correlation links a recent network measure to an earlier cohort.

    Note: Intervals resample whole counties. Counties in one state tend to resemble each other, and resampling whole states gives a wider interval for every measure.

    Note: Counties with a missing measure drop out of that row only, so the number of counties differs by row.

    Source: Social Capital Atlas county measures, 2022, and Opportunity Atlas county outcomes, 1978-1983 birth cohorts; population-weighted (2018 county population)

    Data: vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/race-income-and-mobility/figures/connectedness_horse_race.json

    Table 6. In each of the 20 most populous counties, white residents live longer than Black residents, by 1.1 to 9.9 years

    Life expectancy at birth in years, non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic white residents, for the most populous counties with both estimates, deaths in 2019 to 2021

    countyhi_blackhi_whitele_blackle_whitelo_blacklo_whitepopulation
    Cook County, IL70.4180.2870.2380.1770.0480.065109292
    Alameda County, CA73.5681.6073.0781.3772.5981.151628997
    Wayne County, MI69.0176.6168.7776.4368.5376.251757043
    Los Angeles County, CA73.4079.9373.1979.8472.9779.749721138
    Maricopa County, AZ73.5179.1773.0879.0672.6578.954551524
    King County, WA76.0381.5675.4881.4174.9281.262266789
    Miami-Dade County, FL73.6978.8073.3778.5373.0678.252673837
    Harris County, TX72.8977.8172.6877.6772.4777.524780913
    San Diego County, CA76.0980.6475.5680.5175.0480.373276208
    Dallas County, TX72.9277.7272.6777.5372.4277.342600840
    Kings County, NY77.8182.1477.5781.9777.3381.792590516
    Clark County, NV72.1876.3371.8076.1571.4275.982322985
    Santa Clara County, CA79.3082.6178.2682.4077.2182.181870945
    San Bernardino County, CA71.3774.8470.9274.6170.4674.392193656
    Riverside County, CA74.9077.9274.3977.7273.8877.532473902
    Tarrant County, TX74.2977.2873.9577.1173.6176.942154595
    Orange County, CA78.7881.0177.8780.8676.9680.723151184
    Queens County, NY77.9280.6177.6280.3977.3180.172278029
    Bexar County, TX74.4076.8273.8976.5973.3876.362059530
    Broward County, FL77.4878.5077.1878.2876.8878.051947026

    Note: County Health Rankings computes life expectancy from NCHS death counts for racial and ethnic groups that do not overlap, so the Black and white groups here are non-Hispanic and exclude Hispanic residents of any race. Counties with fewer deaths have wider intervals, and the intervals in this figure are County Health Rankings' own.

    Note: The counties are the most populous ones among those with both estimates, which is the sample behind the headline gap.

    Source: County Health Rankings 2024 (NCHS deaths 2019-2021); full counts of deaths, county life expectancy by race

    Data: vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/race-income-and-mobility/figures/le_black_white_counties.json

    Table 7. Place accounts for 53% of the variance in county life expectancy by race, race for 31% and their interaction for 16%

    Shares of the variance of county-by-race life expectancy (a non-Hispanic white and a non-Hispanic Black estimate for each county), percent, deaths in 2019 to 2021

    WeightingComponentShare of variance (%)Lower limit of the 95% intervalUpper limit of the 95% interval
    Weighted by county populationPlace53.047.558.5
    Weighted by county populationRace31.325.737.1
    Weighted by county populationRace-by-place interaction15.713.018.8
    Each county counted oncePlace64.161.866.5
    Each county counted onceRace19.116.721.7
    Each county counted onceRace-by-place interaction16.815.018.6

    Note: Shares are exact for the county estimates in the file and sum to 100 in each bar. The 95% intervals in the table come from a bootstrap over counties.

    Note: The estimates carry sampling noise that is largest in small counties; the noise sits inside the place and interaction shares and is not removed.

    Note: Both groups of a county get the same weight, which keeps the split exact: the interaction equals the variance of the county gaps divided by four.

    Source: County Health Rankings 2024 (NCHS deaths 2019-2021); full counts of deaths, weighted by county population in the first bar and unweighted in the second

    Data: vishalsingh.org/zipcode/report/race-income-and-mobility/figures/le_variance_race_place.json

    All estimates

    Every fact in facts.json (91), sorted by id. The same values as JSON: facts.json.

    Fact idValueUnitEstimandPopulationPeriodIntervalnWeightsSourceNote
    best_black78.2years of life expectancy at birth90th percentile of county Black life expectancy, weighted by county populationBlack residents of the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankingsdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)1,265 countiescounty total populationCounty Health Rankings
    beta_diff0.10standard deviations of the county mobility rank per standard deviation of the measurestandardized coefficient on economic connectedness minus the coefficient on log median income, same regression, errors clustered on statecounties with a Social Capital Atlas measure and an Opportunity Atlas mobility rank and ACS controls (Connecticut left out)friendships among Facebook users in 2022; mobility for children born 1978 to 1983; ACS 2019 to 202395% CI −0.16 to 0.362,933 counties2018 county population (Social Capital Atlas)Social Capital Atlas
    black_share_covered98%percent of non-Hispanic Black residentsshare of non-Hispanic Black residents living in counties with both race-specific estimatesresidents of the counties in County Health RankingsCounty Health Rankings 2024 release (population estimates for 2022)3,143 countiescounty population times its non-Hispanic Black shareCounty Health Rankings
    bronx_p2539.9percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodpopulation-weighted mean adult household income rank over the county's tractschildren raised at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution in Bronx Countychildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015328 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlas
    bronx_p7547.9percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodpopulation-weighted mean adult household income rank over the county's tractschildren raised at the 75th percentile of the national income distribution in Bronx Countychildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015328 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlas
    civic_r+0.06correlation coefficientpopulation-weighted correlation of the county civic organizations with the county mobility rank, bootstrap interval over countiescounties with a Social Capital Atlas measure and an Opportunity Atlas mobility rankfriendships among Facebook users in 2022; mobility for children born 1978 to 198395% CI −0.01 to 0.142,983 counties2018 county population (Social Capital Atlas)Social Capital Atlas
    conv_slope0.69percentile points of the 75th-percentile family's rank per point of the 25th-percentile family's rankslope of the tract's 75th-percentile rank on its 25th-percentile rank, population-weighted, county-bootstrap intervalchildren raised in families at the 25th and the 75th percentile of the national income distribution, in tracts where the Atlas estimates bothchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201595% CI 0.66 to 0.7271,924 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlas
    conv_slope_county0.70percentile points of the 75th-percentile family's rank per point of the 25th-percentile family's rankslope of the county mean 75th-percentile rank on the county mean 25th-percentile rank, weighted by 2010 population, state-bootstrap intervalcounties with at least 10 tracts in the premium samplechildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201595% CI 0.60 to 0.821,172 counties2010 census tract populationOpportunity AtlasAveraging tracts within counties damps sampling noise in the tract estimates; the slope rises with the minimum number of tracts.
    conv_slope_county_big0.81percentile points of the 75th-percentile family's rank per point of the 25th-percentile family's rankslope of the county mean 75th-percentile rank on the county mean 25th-percentile rank, weighted by 2010 population, state-bootstrap intervalcounties with at least 100 tracts in the premium samplechildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201595% CI 0.69 to 0.91148 counties2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlas
    cook_gap9.9years of life expectancy at birth, white minus Blackwhite minus Black county life expectancy; the interval combines County Health Rankings' two 95% intervals assuming independenceresidents of Cook County, Illinoisdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)95% CI 9.7 to 10.2none (one county)County Health Rankings
    dc_gap17.7years of life expectancy at birth, white minus Blackwhite minus Black county life expectancy; the interval combines County Health Rankings' two 95% intervals assuming independenceresidents of the District of Columbiadeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)95% CI 17.0 to 18.3none (one county)County Health Rankings
    ec_beta0.56standard deviations of the county mobility rank per standard deviation of the measurestandardized coefficient on economic connectedness in a weighted regression with controls for log median income, percent Black, percent with a college degree and percent below poverty, errors clustered on statecounties with a Social Capital Atlas measure and an Opportunity Atlas mobility rank and ACS controls (Connecticut left out)friendships among Facebook users in 2022; mobility for children born 1978 to 1983; ACS 2019 to 202395% CI 0.42 to 0.702,933 counties2018 county population (Social Capital Atlas)Social Capital Atlas
    ec_n2,942countiescount of counties with economic connectedness and a mobility rankcounties with a Social Capital Atlas measure and an Opportunity Atlas mobility rankfriendships among Facebook users in 2022; mobility for children born 1978 to 1983none (full count)Social Capital Atlas
    ec_poor0.57economic connectedness (ratio)population-weighted mean of ZIP economic connectedness, bootstrap interval over countiesZIP code areas (ZCTAs) in the lowest tenth of median household incomefriendships among Facebook users in 2022; income ACS 2019 to 202395% CI 0.56 to 0.581,889 ZIP code areas2018 ZIP population (Social Capital Atlas)Social Capital Atlas
    ec_r+0.69correlation coefficientpopulation-weighted correlation of the county economic connectedness with the county mobility rank, bootstrap interval over countiescounties with a Social Capital Atlas measure and an Opportunity Atlas mobility rankfriendships among Facebook users in 2022; mobility for children born 1978 to 198395% CI 0.64 to 0.742,942 counties2018 county population (Social Capital Atlas)Social Capital Atlas
    ec_rich1.19economic connectedness (ratio)population-weighted mean of ZIP economic connectedness, bootstrap interval over countiesZIP code areas (ZCTAs) in the highest tenth of median household incomefriendships among Facebook users in 2022; income ACS 2019 to 202395% CI 1.16 to 1.211,890 ZIP code areas2018 ZIP population (Social Capital Atlas)Social Capital Atlas
    gap_high_third11.6percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, white minus Blackmean of the county white minus Black gap in adult income rank within a third of counties (equal numbers of counties, ranked by the county mean white rank), weighted by 2010 population summed to the county, state-bootstrap intervalchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in counties with at least 20 tracts that have both estimates, in the third of those counties with the highest mean rank for white childrenchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201595% CI 10.8 to 12.1112 counties2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlas
    gap_high_third_tract14.8percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, white minus Blackmean white minus Black gap in adult income rank within a third of tracts (equal numbers of tracts, ranked by the white rank), population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in tracts where the Atlas estimates both white and Black children in the third of tracts with the highest mean rank for white childrenchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201595% CI 14.4 to 15.210,333 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity AtlasSorting on the noisy white rank itself builds part of this contrast into the thirds.
    gap_hisp2.6percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, white minus Hispanicmean over tracts of the white minus Hispanic gap in adult income rank, population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in tracts where the Atlas estimates both white and Hispanic childrenchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201595% CI 2.3 to 2.935,579 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlas
    gap_low_third8.4percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, white minus Blackmean of the county white minus Black gap in adult income rank within a third of counties (equal numbers of counties, ranked by the county mean white rank), weighted by 2010 population summed to the county, state-bootstrap intervalchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in counties with at least 20 tracts that have both estimates, in the third of those counties with the lowest mean rank for white childrenchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201595% CI 8.1 to 8.7112 counties2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlas
    gap_low_third_tract5.6percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, white minus Blackmean white minus Black gap in adult income rank within a third of tracts (equal numbers of tracts, ranked by the white rank), population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in tracts where the Atlas estimates both white and Black children in the third of tracts with the lowest mean rank for white childrenchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201595% CI 5.4 to 5.810,332 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity AtlasSorting on the noisy white rank itself builds part of this contrast into the thirds.
    gap_min_big1.1years of life expectancy at birth, white minus Blackwhite minus Black county life expectancy; the interval combines County Health Rankings' two 95% intervals assuming independenceresidents of Broward County, FL, the county with the smallest gap among the most populous countiesdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)95% CI 0.7 to 1.5none (one county)County Health Rankings
    inc_beta0.46standard deviations of the county mobility rank per standard deviation of the measurestandardized coefficient on the log of median household income in a weighted regression with controls for log median income, percent Black, percent with a college degree and percent below poverty, errors clustered on statecounties with a Social Capital Atlas measure and an Opportunity Atlas mobility rank and ACS controls (Connecticut left out)friendships among Facebook users in 2022; mobility for children born 1978 to 1983; ACS 2019 to 202395% CI 0.26 to 0.672,933 counties2018 county population (Social Capital Atlas)Social Capital Atlas
    kfr_black34.6percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodmean adult household income rank, population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalBlack children raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution), in tracts where the Atlas also estimates white childrenchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201595% CI 34.3 to 34.930,997 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity AtlasCounting each tract once gives a similar mean.
    kfr_dc34.9percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodcounty value from the Opportunity Atlaschildren raised in low-income families in the District of Columbia, a single county that is left out of the ranking of stateschildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 20151 countiesnone (one county)Opportunity Atlas
    kfr_gap10.3percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, white minus Blackmean over tracts of the white minus Black gap in adult income rank, population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in tracts where the Atlas estimates both white and Black childrenchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201595% CI 10.0 to 10.630,997 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity AtlasCounting each tract once gives a similar gap.
    kfr_mean41.3percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodpopulation-weighted mean of the county valuescounties with an estimate for children raised at the 25th percentile of the national income distributionchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 20153,136 countiescounty population in County Health Rankings 2024Opportunity Atlas
    kfr_p534.9percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodpopulation-weighted 5th percentile of the county valuescounties with an estimate for children raised at the 25th percentile of the national income distributionchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 20153,136 countiescounty population in County Health Rankings 2024Opportunity Atlas
    kfr_p9548.4percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodpopulation-weighted 95th percentile of the county valuescounties with an estimate for children raised at the 25th percentile of the national income distributionchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 20153,136 countiescounty population in County Health Rankings 2024Opportunity Atlas
    kfr_state_high53.3percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodstate mean of the county values, weighted by county populationcounties with an estimate for children raised at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution in the state with the highest mean, among the 50 states (DC left out)children born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201553 countiescounty population in County Health Rankings 2024Opportunity Atlas
    kfr_state_low35.9percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodstate mean of the county values, weighted by county populationcounties with an estimate for children raised at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution in the state with the lowest mean, among the 50 states (DC left out)children born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201546 countiescounty population in County Health Rankings 2024Opportunity Atlas
    kfr_white44.9percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodmean adult household income rank, population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalwhite children raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution), in tracts where the Atlas also estimates Black childrenchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201595% CI 44.5 to 45.330,997 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity AtlasCounting each tract once gives a similar mean.
    le_b73.7years of life expectancy at birthmean of county life expectancy, weighted by county population, bootstrap interval over countiesBlack residents of the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankingsdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)95% CI 73.4 to 74.11,265 countiescounty total populationCounty Health Rankings
    le_gap4.4years of life expectancy at birth, non-Hispanic white minus non-Hispanic Blackmean of the county non-Hispanic white minus non-Hispanic Black gap in life expectancy, weighted by county population, bootstrap interval over countiescounties with both a non-Hispanic white and a non-Hispanic Black life expectancy in County Health Rankingsdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)95% CI 4.0 to 4.81,265 countiescounty total populationCounty Health RankingsCounty Health Rankings publishes a race-specific life expectancy only where deaths are numerous enough. These 1,265 counties hold 98 percent of the non-Hispanic Black residents of all counties in the file. Interval: bootstrap over counties.
    le_gap_unweighted3.5years of life expectancy at birth, non-Hispanic white minus non-Hispanic Blackmean of the county non-Hispanic white minus non-Hispanic Black gap in life expectancy, each county counted once, bootstrap interval over countiescounties with both a non-Hispanic white and a non-Hispanic Black life expectancy in County Health Rankingsdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)95% CI 3.3 to 3.71,265 countiesnone (each county counts once)County Health RankingsCounty Health Rankings publishes a race-specific life expectancy only where deaths are numerous enough. These 1,265 counties hold 98 percent of the non-Hispanic Black residents of all counties in the file. Interval: bootstrap over counties.
    le_w78.1years of life expectancy at birthmean of county life expectancy, weighted by county population, bootstrap interval over countieswhite residents of the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankingsdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)95% CI 77.8 to 78.41,265 countiescounty total populationCounty Health Rankings
    lead_asian9.4percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, Asian minus whitemean over tracts of the Asian minus white gap in adult income rank, population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in tracts where the Atlas estimates both white and Asian childrenchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201595% CI 8.9 to 9.815,078 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlas
    m2543.2percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodmean adult household income rank, population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalchildren raised at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution, races pooledchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201595% CI 42.9 to 43.571,924 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlas
    m7556.8percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodmean adult household income rank, population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalchildren raised at the 75th percentile of the national income distribution, races pooledchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201595% CI 56.4 to 57.271,924 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlas
    median_pop_all82,911peoplemedian of county total populationresidents of all the counties in the samplecounty population in County Health Rankings 20241,265 countiesnone (median over counties)County Health Rankings
    min_tracts_county100tractsminimum number of tracts with both estimates for a county to be rankedcounties ranked on the premiumchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015none (inclusion rule)Opportunity Atlas
    min_tracts_gap20tractsminimum number of tracts with both estimates for a county to enter the county versioncounties in the county version of the comparisonchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015none (inclusion rule)Opportunity Atlas
    min_tracts_slope10tractsminimum number of tracts with both estimates for a county to enter the slopecounties in the county-level premium slopechildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015none (inclusion rule)Opportunity Atlas
    n_clear_gap677countiescount of counties where the 95% interval for white life expectancy lies entirely above the interval for Black life expectancycounties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankingsdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)none (full count)County Health Rankings
    n_clear_reversal9countiescount of counties where the 95% interval for Black life expectancy lies entirely above the interval for white life expectancycounties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankingsdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)none (full count)County Health Rankings
    n_counties_nodata5countiescount of drawn counties with no Opportunity Atlas estimatecounties and county equivalents on the map (Puerto Rico not drawn)children born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015none (full count)Opportunity Atlas
    n_dumbbell20countiesnumber of counties drawn in the dumbbell figuremost populous counties in the life-expectancy sampledeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)none (rule)County Health Rankings
    n_gap_counties336countiescount of counties in the county version of the comparisonchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in counties with at least 20 tracts that have both estimateschildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015none (full count)Opportunity Atlas
    n_le_cty1,265countiescount of counties with both estimatescounties with both a non-Hispanic white and a non-Hispanic Black life expectancy in County Health Rankingsdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)none (full count)County Health Rankings
    n_outside_lad35tractscount of tracts outside the plotted range of the same-tract scatterchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in tracts where the Atlas estimates both white and Black childrenchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015none (full count)Opportunity Atlas
    n_outside_prem15tractscount of tracts outside the plotted range of the premium scatterchildren raised in families at the 25th and the 75th percentile of the national income distribution, in tracts where the Atlas estimates bothchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015none (full count)Opportunity Atlas
    n_pm_cty1,242countiescount of counties in the premature death comparisoncounties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankings that also report both premature death ratesdeaths before age 75 in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)none (full count)County Health Rankings
    n_prem_counties148countiescount of counties with the minimum number of tractscounties with enough tracts to rank on the premiumchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015none (full count)Opportunity Atlas
    n_prem_lowest8countiesnumber of counties with the smallest premiums examined for their locationcounties ranked on the premiumchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015none (rule)Opportunity Atlas
    n_prem_tracts71,924tractscount of tracts2010 census tracts with a mean adult income rank for both parental income levels and a recorded 2010 populationchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015none (full count)Opportunity Atlas
    n_reversal140countiescount of counties where Black life expectancy is higher than whitecounties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankingsdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)none (full count)County Health Rankings
    n_sample5,000tractssize of a random sample drawn with a fixed seedtracts drawn at random for each scatter plotchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201530,997 tractsnone (sample size)Opportunity Atlas
    n_tracts_lad30,997tractscount of tracts2010 census tracts with a mean adult income rank for white and for Black children from low-income families and a recorded 2010 populationchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015none (full count)Opportunity Atlas
    n_zip18,896ZIP code areascount of ZIP codes (ZCTAs) in the comparisonZIP code areas (ZCTAs) with an economic connectedness value and a median household incomefriendships among Facebook users in 2022none (full count)Social Capital Atlas
    oa_causal_share60%percent of the variation in adult outcomes across neighborhoodsshare of the variation across neighborhoods that experimental and quasi-experimental estimates attribute to causal effects of neighborhoods; reported in the abstract of Chetty, Friedman, Hendren, Jones and Porter (2018), copied from it and not computed in this buildcensus tracts of the United States, children born 1978 to 1983children born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015none (reported estimate)Opportunity AtlasA published estimate, not a result of this build.
    pct_below92.5%percent of tracts in which the white children's mean rank is highershare of tracts (each tract counted once) where white children reach a higher mean adult rank than Black children, county-bootstrap intervalchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in tracts where the Atlas estimates both white and Black childrenchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201595% CI 91.9% to 93.0%30,997 tractsnone (each tract counts once)Opportunity AtlasWeighting tracts by 2010 population gives a similar share.
    pct_inter16%percent of the variance of county-by-race life expectancyshare of the total variance attributed to the race-by-place interaction (the spread of the gap across counties), weighted by county population, bootstrap interval over countiescounty-by-race life expectancy (a white and a Black estimate for each county) in the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankingsdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)95% CI 13% to 19%1,265 countiescounty total populationCounty Health Rankings
    pct_inter_unw17%percent of the variance of county-by-race life expectancyshare of the total variance attributed to the race-by-place interaction (the spread of the gap across counties), each county counted once, bootstrap interval over countiescounty-by-race life expectancy (a white and a Black estimate for each county) in the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankingsdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)95% CI 15% to 19%1,265 countiesnone (each county counts once)County Health Rankings
    pct_place53%percent of the variance of county-by-race life expectancyshare of the total variance attributed to place (the spread of county averages), weighted by county population, bootstrap interval over countiescounty-by-race life expectancy (a white and a Black estimate for each county) in the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankingsdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)95% CI 48% to 58%1,265 countiescounty total populationCounty Health Rankings
    pct_place_unw64%percent of the variance of county-by-race life expectancyshare of the total variance attributed to place (the spread of county averages), each county counted once, bootstrap interval over countiescounty-by-race life expectancy (a white and a Black estimate for each county) in the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankingsdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)95% CI 62% to 66%1,265 countiesnone (each county counts once)County Health Rankings
    pct_race31%percent of the variance of county-by-race life expectancyshare of the total variance attributed to race (the average white-Black gap), weighted by county population, bootstrap interval over countiescounty-by-race life expectancy (a white and a Black estimate for each county) in the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankingsdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)95% CI 26% to 37%1,265 countiescounty total populationCounty Health Rankings
    pct_race_unw19%percent of the variance of county-by-race life expectancyshare of the total variance attributed to race (the average white-Black gap), each county counted once, bootstrap interval over countiescounty-by-race life expectancy (a white and a Black estimate for each county) in the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankingsdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)95% CI 17% to 22%1,265 countiesnone (each county counts once)County Health Rankings
    pct_white_higher89%percent of countiesshare of counties where non-Hispanic white life expectancy exceeds non-Hispanic Black life expectancycounties with both a non-Hispanic white and a non-Hispanic Black life expectancy in County Health Rankingsdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)1,265 countiesnone (each county counts once)County Health Rankings
    pm_ratio1.5ratio of the non-Hispanic Black to the non-Hispanic white premature age-adjusted mortality rate (deaths under age 75 per 100,000)ratio of two county-population-weighted means of the age-adjusted premature death rate per 100,000, bootstrap interval over countiescounties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankings that also report both premature death ratesdeaths before age 75 in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)95% CI 1.5 to 1.61,242 countiescounty total populationCounty Health Rankings
    pop_lad144.8 millionpeoplesum of 2010 census tract populationresidents of the tracts in the same-tract comparison2010 censusnone (full count)Opportunity Atlas
    pop_lad_share46.9%percent of the 2010 U.S. populationpopulation of the same-tract comparison tracts as a share of the U.S. populationresidents of the United States2010 censusnone (full count)Opportunity Atlas
    prem13.6percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, 75th-percentile parents minus 25th-percentile parentsmean over tracts of the 75th minus the 25th percentile family rank (the born-rich premium), population-weighted mean over tracts (2010 tract population as the weight), county-bootstrap intervalchildren raised in families at the 25th and the 75th percentile of the national income distribution, in tracts where the Atlas estimates bothchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201595% CI 13.2 to 13.971,924 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlas
    prem_bot_val8.0percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, 75th-percentile parents minus 25th-percentile parentspopulation-weighted mean of the tract premium within the countythe county with the smallest premium, among counties with at least 100 tractschildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015328 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlas
    prem_luzerne16.9percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, 75th-percentile parents minus 25th-percentile parentspopulation-weighted mean of the tract premium within the countyLuzerne County, Pennsylvania, among counties with at least 100 tractschildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015103 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlas
    prem_p55.8percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, 75th-percentile parents minus 25th-percentile parentspopulation-weighted 5th percentile of the tract premiumchildren raised in families at the 25th and the 75th percentile of the national income distribution, in tracts where the Atlas estimates bothchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201571,924 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity AtlasTract estimates carry sampling and privacy noise, which widens this spread.
    prem_p9521.3percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, 75th-percentile parents minus 25th-percentile parentspopulation-weighted 95th percentile of the tract premiumchildren raised in families at the 25th and the 75th percentile of the national income distribution, in tracts where the Atlas estimates bothchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201571,924 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity AtlasTract estimates carry sampling and privacy noise, which widens this spread.
    prem_sf8.9percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, 75th-percentile parents minus 25th-percentile parentspopulation-weighted mean of the tract premium within the countySan Francisco County, California, among counties with at least 100 tractschildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015193 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlas
    prem_top_val17.3percentile points of national household income rank in adulthood, 75th-percentile parents minus 25th-percentile parentspopulation-weighted mean of the tract premium within the countythe county with the largest premium, among counties with at least 100 tractschildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015222 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlas
    premature_age75years of ageage limit in the definition of premature death (deaths before this age)deaths counted as premature in County Health Rankingsdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)none (definition)County Health Rankings
    rev_median_pop59,039peoplemedian of county total populationresidents of the counties where the Black estimate is the highercounty population in County Health Rankings 2024140 countiesnone (median over counties)County Health Rankings
    seg_beta_fe0.06years of life-expectancy gap per point of the dissimilarity indexslope of the gap on the index in a county-population-weighted regression with state fixed effects, errors clustered on statecounties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankings that also report the Black-white residential segregation indexindex from ACS 2018 to 2022; deaths in 2019 to 202195% CI 0.00 to 0.121,260 countiescounty total populationCounty Health Rankings
    seg_n1,260countiescount of counties in the segregation comparisoncounties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankings that also report the Black-white residential segregation indexindex from ACS 2018 to 2022; deaths in 2019 to 2021none (full count)County Health Rankings
    seg_r+0.30correlation coefficientpopulation-weighted correlation of the white minus Black life-expectancy gap with the index of dissimilarity, bootstrap interval over countiescounties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankings that also report the Black-white residential segregation indexindex from ACS 2018 to 2022; deaths in 2019 to 202195% CI 0.14 to 0.451,260 countiescounty total populationCounty Health Rankings
    sf_p2550.3percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodpopulation-weighted mean adult household income rank over the county's tractschildren raised at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution in San Francisco Countychildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015193 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlas
    sf_p7559.2percentile points of national household income rank in adulthoodpopulation-weighted mean adult household income rank over the county's tractschildren raised at the 75th percentile of the national income distribution in San Francisco Countychildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 2015193 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlas
    slope_bw0.60percentile points of Black children's rank per point of white children's rankslope of the county mean Black rank on the county mean white rank, weighted by 2010 population summed to the county, state-bootstrap intervalchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in counties with at least 20 tracts that have both estimateschildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201595% CI 0.49 to 0.71336 counties2010 census tract populationOpportunity Atlas
    slope_bw_tract0.33percentile points of Black children's rank per point of white children's rankslope of the tract's Black rank on its white rank, population-weighted, county-bootstrap intervalchildren raised in low-income families (parents at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution) in tracts where the Atlas estimates both white and Black childrenchildren born 1978 to 1983, household income measured in 2014 to 201595% CI 0.30 to 0.3630,997 tracts2010 census tract populationOpportunity AtlasSampling noise in the white rank pulls this slope toward zero by an amount the staged data cannot size; the county slope averages that noise away.
    support_r−0.25correlation coefficientpopulation-weighted correlation of the county support ratio with the county mobility rank, bootstrap interval over countiescounties with a Social Capital Atlas measure and an Opportunity Atlas mobility rankfriendships among Facebook users in 2022; mobility for children born 1978 to 198395% CI −0.33 to −0.172,983 counties2018 county population (Social Capital Atlas)Social Capital Atlas
    vol_r+0.19correlation coefficientpopulation-weighted correlation of the county volunteering rate with the county mobility rank, bootstrap interval over countiescounties with a Social Capital Atlas measure and an Opportunity Atlas mobility rankfriendships among Facebook users in 2022; mobility for children born 1978 to 198395% CI 0.12 to 0.252,983 counties2018 county population (Social Capital Atlas)Social Capital Atlas
    worst_white74.4years of life expectancy at birth10th percentile of county white life expectancy, weighted by county populationwhite residents of the counties with both a white and a Black life expectancy in County Health Rankingsdeaths in 2019 to 2021 (County Health Rankings 2024 release)1,265 countiescounty total populationCounty Health Rankings
    zip_r+0.82correlation coefficientpopulation-weighted correlation of ZIP economic connectedness with the ZIP's percentile rank of median household income, bootstrap interval over countiesZIP code areas (ZCTAs) with an economic connectedness value and a median household incomefriendships among Facebook users in 2022; income ACS 2019 to 202395% CI 0.81 to 0.8318,896 ZIP code areas2018 ZIP population (Social Capital Atlas)Social Capital Atlas

    Definitions

    Income rank (kfr)
    The position that adult children reach in the national distribution of household income, from the lowest rank to the highest, averaged over children who grew up in a place with parents at a stated income level. The Opportunity Atlas labels this measure kfr.
    Census tract
    A small area drawn by the Census Bureau to stand in for a neighborhood. Boundaries are redrawn after each decennial census.
    Economic connectedness
    A measure of friendship across class lines, based on the share of high-status friends among people below the median in socioeconomic status. It is scaled so that friendships mixing in proportion to the population give the reference value.
    ZCTA
    ZIP Code Tabulation Area, the Census Bureau's approximation of a ZIP code as a set of census blocks. It lets census data be reported by ZIP code, though some ZIP codes have no matching ZCTA.
    Population-weighted
    Averaged so that each place counts in proportion to its number of residents, which lets a large county move the result more than a small one. An unweighted average counts every place equally.
    Fixed effects
    A regression adjustment that gives each group, such as each county, its own baseline. The estimate then rests on differences within groups.
    Ecological inference
    Drawing conclusions about individuals from data about places or groups. A pattern across counties need not hold for the people inside them.

    Methods

    The tract comparisons use Opportunity Atlas estimates on native 2010 tracts for children born in 1978 to 1983 and observed in 2014 to 2015, and a tract enters a comparison only when both estimates exist. Atlas privacy noise is not clipped, and tracts are weighted by their 2010 census population because the Atlas has no child counts. The county comparisons of life expectancy by race use County Health Rankings estimates for deaths in 2019 to 2021, for counties with both a non-Hispanic white and a non-Hispanic Black value, so the mobility outcomes and the life-expectancy outcomes refer to different periods. The connectedness regression drops Connecticut.

    Which tracts and children the Atlas comparisons cover

    Tract comparisons use the Opportunity Atlas on native 2010 tracts. Ranks are percentiles of the national household income distribution for children born in 1978 to 1983, observed in 2014 to 2015; race-specific ranks are staged for parents at the 25th percentile with genders pooled, and the 75th-percentile rank only with races pooled. Atlas privacy noise is not clipped.

    A tract enters a comparison when both estimates exist and its 2010 population is positive.

    Figures explained here: Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3 and Figure 4

    How life expectancy by race and the variance split are defined

    Life expectancy by race is the County Health Rankings 2024 estimate, computed from NCHS death counts for deaths in 2019 to 2021, for counties with both a non-Hispanic white and a non-Hispanic Black value; the white-Black gap within counties, weighted and unweighted, comes from the book's shared routine.

    The variance split treats the white and Black life expectancy of each county as two cells, gives both the same weight (county population, or one), and divides the weighted variance of the cells into the variance of county averages (place), the squared difference between the group means (race) and the remainder, which equals the weighted variance of the county gaps divided by four (interaction); the shares sum to 100.

    Figures explained here: Figure 6 and Figure 7

    How tracts and counties are weighted and joined

    Each tract is weighted by its 2010 census population, read from the USDA Food Access Research Atlas file, which carries the 2010 census count of every 2010 tract (the Atlas has no child counts); counting each tract once gives similar results, and the share of tracts in which white children rank higher counts each tract once.

    County mobility ranks, the Social Capital Atlas measures and ACS controls are joined on county codes; correlations are weighted by the Atlas's 2018 population, and the regression is a weighted fit of standardized variables with errors clustered on state (Connecticut drops out because the ACS tract file uses planning-region codes).

    Figures explained here: Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4 and Figure 5

    How the gap across the white rank is estimated

    The contrast of the white-Black gap across the white rank is estimated at county grain, on counties with at least 20 tracts that have both estimates, because sorting tracts on a noisy rank builds the contrast in; the county slopes of the premium use counties with at least 10 and at least 100 tracts, with state-bootstrap intervals.

    Figures explained here: Figure 2 and Figure 4

    How uncertainty is measured

    Intervals are 95% percentile intervals from 2,000 draws of whole counties with replacement (seed 12345), computed by the same routine for means, shares, slopes and correlations; state-level quantities use states as the resampling unit. Scatter plots show a random sample of tracts inside the plotted range drawn with the same seed; every estimate uses all tracts.

    Intervals on the shares resample counties. Counties with a missing estimate are not drawn and are not treated as zero.

    What these data cannot show

    The patterns here describe tracts, ZIP code areas and counties. The average life expectancy of Black residents of Cook County says little about how long any one Black resident of Cook County will live, because the data are averages for places and groups (ecological inference).

    A same-tract comparison removes the differences between neighborhoods but not all differences. Within a tract, families at one income percentile can still differ in wealth, in the exact block, in schooling and in how institutions treat them. The gap is a residual, and the data describe it without explaining it. Chetty, Hendren, Jones and Porter find that the gap in individual adult income between Black and white children raised at the same parental income is concentrated among boys and men. They find it smaller in tracts with lower poverty and a higher share of Black fathers present, a comparison across places and not an experiment.[2] The ranks here pool boys and girls and measure household income, which includes a spouse's income, because race by gender is not available in the staged data (see Chapter 4.4, Boys and mobility (https://vishalsingh.org/zipcode/boys-and-mobility; planned)).

    The Atlas estimates are for children born in 1978 to 1983 and observed in 2014 to 2015. Each tract estimate rests on a modest number of children and carries privacy noise, which is not clipped. Tracts weigh in by their 2010 population because the file has no child counts, and the tracts with both estimates are those with enough children of both groups.

    The life-expectancy estimates are computed from death counts that are small in small counties, so the share of counties with a reversed gap and the shares in the decomposition include sampling noise. County Health Rankings counts Black and white residents who are not Hispanic, and the index of dissimilarity is measured for 2018 to 2022. The connectedness measures come from active Facebook users and describe places in 2022, and the regression cannot separate connectedness from income more finely than its interval allows. Puerto Rico has Atlas estimates but is not drawn on the maps, and Connecticut is missing from the regression because its tract codes differ across the files.

    References

    1. Chetty, Raj; Friedman, John N.; Hendren, Nathaniel; Jones, Maggie R.; Porter, Sonya R. (2018). The Opportunity Atlas: Mapping the Childhood Roots of Social Mobility. NBER Working Paper 25147. doi:10.3386/w25147
    2. Chetty, Raj; Hendren, Nathaniel; Jones, Maggie R.; Porter, Sonya R. (2020). Race and Economic Opportunity in the United States: An Intergenerational Perspective. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 135(2): 711-783. doi:10.1093/qje/qjz042
    3. Chetty, Raj; Jackson, Matthew O.; Kuchler, Theresa; Stroebel, Johannes; et al. (2022). Social capital I: measurement and associations with economic mobility. Nature 608: 108-121. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04996-4
    4. University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute (2024). County Health Rankings & Roadmaps Technical Documentation, Version 2. University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute (updated March 18, 2024). www.countyhealthrankings.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2024%20CHRR%20Technical%20Document_1.pdf
    5. Chetty, Raj; Hendren, Nathaniel; Katz, Lawrence F. (2016). The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment. American Economic Review 106(4): 855-902. doi:10.1257/aer.20150572
    6. Chetty, Raj; Hendren, Nathaniel (2018). The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility I: Childhood Exposure Effects. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 133(3): 1107-1162. doi:10.1093/qje/qjy007
    7. Chetty, Raj; Hendren, Nathaniel (2018). The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility II: County-Level Estimates. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 133(3): 1163-1228. doi:10.1093/qje/qjy006

    Provenance

    Pipeline version
    0.1.0
    Build script
    book2/chapters/race-income-and-mobility/build.py (sha256 a8ec15d89c0374c9cc3e97a83cf5b548ed926ec782cbeac2d38b7cd537e1b4c4)
    Built on
    2026-10-07
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    c2b1ff3309cb4a10833f884da91ac0057a66ad0a

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