Chart of the Day: Household Income Distribution by Region

Our friends over at the Demographics Research Group at the University of Virginia continue to display data in interesting ways. The chart above breaks the state into eight demographic regions and then plots the median household income by locality. As can be seen, there is significant variability within regions — particularly in Northern Virginia and Central Virginia, both of which in this schema include some outlying rural counties. But even the poorest Northern Virginia locality has a higher median income than the richest localities in Southside and Southwest Virginia.

As with all income comparisons, this does not adjust for the considerable differences in the cost of living, particularly housing, so it does not accurately reflect disparities in living standards. If the Demographics Group could adjust for cost of living, we’d really have something interesting to examine.