Queens Gets Wealthier As Incomes Rise, Census Shows

An earlier version of this story erroneously reported that incomes in The Bronx had gone down, while those in Queens had almost doubled. We regret the mistake.

QUEENS, NY – Queens families got wealthier in the past five years as households in the borough saw their incomes go up.

The median household income earned in Queens between 2013 and 2017 went to $62,008 from $56,780. It went up in every New York City borough.

Income has increased across the country, the numbers showed. The nation’s median household income from 2013 to 2017 was $57,652. That was up 8.7 percent from 2008 to 2012 when the median household took home $53,046. That number includes all households, including people who live alone.

The report did not suggest reasons for the changes.

Here's the median household income in each New York City county between 2013 to 2017, compared to earnings in the 2008 to 2012 period.

1. Manhattan - $79,781, up from $68,370.
2. Staten Island - $76,244, up from $73,496.
3. Queens - $62,008, up from $56,780.
4. Brooklyn - $52,782, up from $45,215.
5. The Bronx - $36,593, up from $34,300.

A map provided by the Census Bureau showed many of the nation's highest earners reside in the Northeast and the West. Some are scattered throughout Texas as well. Conversely, a large swath of households in the South earned less than $40,000 a year, lagging behind the the nation.

Indeed, 34 of the lowest earning counties in America are located in the South. That includes Kentucky’s McCreary County, located near the Tennessee border, which brought home less income than every other county in America from 2013 to 2017 at $19,264 a year. McCreary residents actually earned more between 2008 and 2012, when the median household income was $21,785.

The dataset looked at dozens of social, economic, housing and demographic topics for every county in America. There are 3,142 of them, to be exact, and the survey is the only full data set available for 2,316 counties with populations too small to produce a complete set of single-year survey estimates, the agency said in a release. That allows for “detailed profiles” of communities nationwide.

“The ACS is an ongoing survey that offers vital information on a yearly basis about our nation and its people,” said Victoria Velkoff, associate director for demographic programs. “It’s our country’s largest source of small area estimates for socio-economic and demographic characteristics. Information from the survey generates data that help determine how more than $675 billion in federal and state funds are distributed each year.”

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

Photo credit: Mark Lennihan/Associated Press