Where Do I Stand? Income disparity and me.

I was looking for a calculator that would visualize income disparity for me as an individual but I couldn't find one. The closest I came was a javascript tool created as part of the great article series: The Great Divergence by Tim Noah at Slate. He also did the excellent healthcare plan comparative series during the 08 Democratic primaries. The visual essay compiled for the series is available here . I also suggest you read the articles here.

As for that comparative income calculator:

Where do I stand?

Enter your zip code and income to find out where you fall on the curve.

Zipcode: Income:


How you compare:
Average income in zipcode:
Median income in state:
Median income in country: $52,059
Percentile in country:

Sources: American Community Survey (State and National Data), IncomeTaxList (Zip code data).

NOTE: All information you enter is private and will not be recorded or stored in any way.

Anyway this was compiled by the folks at Slate using publicly available data This is based on a normal distribution. The actual distribution of incomes has a key outlier though, the people at the very top make a lot more than the mean. There is a football field metaphor description of this at the L-Curve. Here is a video explanation, I warn you though the voice over sounds like Ben Stein on Ambien.




So grab your tax statement, find your income percentage with the tool, and take a look at what yard line your on.