Median household income is an economic indicator commonly used as a proxy for quality of life. This metric is also often used to determine if residents in a given location are able to afford the cost of living of residing in that area. In conjunction with per capita income, median household income is used to determine the wealth of a given region. This metric includes both part-time and full-time workers.
Louisville currently ranks 10th among its peer cities in median household income with a median income of $55,000.
Louisville is in the middle of its peer group according to a natural breaks algorithm. Cities in green are those that outperform their peers, cities in yellow represent the middle cluster, and those in red are a group that lags behind its peers on this indicator.
There is tremendous variation in income across the city. In the map to the left, areas with higher median household income are displayed in green, and areas with lower median household income are displayed in red.
A dramatic divide in median household earnings exists in Louisville. Households in eastern Louisville receive higher median earnings than those in West Louisville. As showcased on the map to the left, households in Floyd’s Fork garner a median earning of over $80,000. Households downtown and in Old Louisville garner a media wage of only $17,800. Residents in the Phoenix Hill and Smoketown receive a median earning of $18,200. Russell neighborhood households receive a median income of $20,400.
Scroll over the map to see values for each census tract. Zoom in to see street names that form the boundaries of each tract.
After a period of decline from 2000 to 2009, Louisville’s median household income began to rise. Since 2011, median household income in Louisville has seen a steady rate of improvement relative to its peers and moved from close to the 25th percentile to near the peer mean.
The median income in Knoxville, the most improved city, increased from $3,500 below the peer mean in 2000 to $1,400 above the peer mean in 2016. Louisville’s median household income decreased by $300, compared to an average decrease of $1,600 among peer cities. Median household income in Indianapolis, the worst-performing peer city, decreased by almost $9,000.
Young children living in poverty experience unique barriers to food access, stable housing, healthcare, and social support. In addition, they are at an increased risk of depression, intimate partner violence, and poor health behaviors as they grow older. As a result, children who grow up in poverty experience higher rates of illness and death than children who do not.
Louisville currently ranks 7th among its peer cities with 22.4 percent of children under the age of 18 living in poverty. The poverty line in 2015 was $15,930 for a family of two and $20,090 for a family of three.
Louisville is in the middle of its peer group according to a natural breaks algorithm. Cities in Green are a cluster that outperforms their peers, Yellow represents the middle cluster, and Red is a group that lags behind its peers on this indicator.
Although Louisville ranks 7th out of 17 cities in child poverty rates, child poverty varies substantially within the city, ranging from 67% in some neighborhoods to 4% in others. In the map to the left, areas with higher rates of child poverty are purple, and areas with lower rates are white.
Child poverty is most concentrated in Louisville’s western and downtown neighborhoods. Russell, California, Smoketown, and Park Hill are several neighborhoods with particularly high rates of child poverty. The lowest rates of child poverty are in Floyd’s Fork, the Highlands, and Northeast Jefferson.
Scroll over the map to see values for each census tract. Zoom in to see street names that form the boundaries of each tract.
The child poverty rate in Louisville has been steadily decreasing since 2011. Until then, Louisville traditionally ranked in the bottom 50% of its peer cities. However, Louisville has been reducing child poverty at a faster rate than many of its peer cities over the past 5 years, and it is now ranked just outside the top 25% of its peer cities. Concerted efforts to eradicate child poverty could create a foundation that would place Louisville in the top tier of cities for generations to come.
The effects of poverty are not just on the wallet, but in every barrier to health and wellbeing. The multidimensional poverty index reflects the fact that individuals experience poverty in multiple forms: low income, poorer health, unemployment, low education, and living in a poor neighborhood. These factors are not additive–each experienced factor multiplies the barriers to success for an individual in poverty. In order to address the complex issue of poverty, efforts to effect positive change must be coherent with the notion that poverty is caused by multiple, confounding factors.
Louisville currently ranks 15th among its peers in rates of multidimensional poverty with 14.5% of residents living in multidimensional poverty. The multidimensional poverty index evaluates poverty through four dimensions: low income (150% of the poverty line), unemployment, lack of health insurance, and lack of a high school degree. A neighborhood is determined to be in multidimensional poverty if its average z-score across all four factors is greater than 1.
On this metric, Louisville ranks among the bottom tier of its peers according to a natural breaks algorithm. Cities in green are those that outperform their peers, cities in yellow represent the middle cluster, and those in red are a group that lags behind its peers on this indicator.
Levels of multidimensional poverty vary greatly across the city. The neighborhoods with the highest level of multidimensional poverty are Russell and Portland. One of the tracts in the Portland neighborhood also has a very high level of multidimensional poverty, though it is offset by other tracts with lower levels of multidimensional poverty. The neighborhoods with the least multidimensional poverty are Floyd’s Fork, Northeast Jefferson, and the Highlands.
Scroll over the map to see values for each census tract. Zoom in to see street names that form the boundaries of each tract.
Growing income inequality is the result of educational disparities, stagnant wage growth in middle and lower class jobs, and a higher emphasis on creating a skilled workforce. Economists are divided on whether the implications of income inequality are positive or negative. Income inequality is the ratio of the average income of the top 20% of the population to the average income of the bottom 20% of the population.
Louisville ranks 9th among its peer cities in income inequality. The average income of the top 20% of Louisville residents is 15.7 times greater than the average income of the bottom 20%.
Louisville ranks among the middle tier on this metric according to a natural breaks algorithm. Cities in green are those that outperform their peers, cities in yellow represent the middle cluster, and those in red are a group that lags behind its peers on this indicator.
Income inequality in Louisville has been decreasing since 2013, returning to the same level as measured in 2007. Income inequality in Louisville has decreased from the peer mean and is approaching the 25th percentile.
The average peer city saw a slight increase in the income inequality ratio between 2007 and 2016. Columbus, the most improved city, saw a small decrease. Indianapolis, the least improved city, saw its income inequality ratio increase from 13.6 to 17.1.
The number of disconnected youth in a community is a good indicator of how that community is preparing its youth for a transition to adulthood. Disconnected youth often are not able to build their toolkit of skills for employment and often do not have the adequate social capital to fall back on in crisis situations. Because of these trends, disconnected youth are at a higher risk of experiencing homelessness or participating in criminal activity.
Louisville currently ranks 9th among its peers in rates of disconnected youth with a rate of 7.1%. A young person aged 16 to 24 is considered disconnected if they are neither working nor in school.
Louisville ranks among the top tier of its peer cities on this metric according to a natural breaks algorithm. Cities in green are those that outperform their peers, cities in yellow represent the middle cluster, and those in red are a group that lags behind its peers on this indicator.
The rate of disconnected youth in Louisville has been rapidly decreasing relative to its peers since it reached a maximum in 2012. Louisville has reduced its rate of disconnected youth from above its peer city average in 2012 to below its peer city average in 2015.
Access to nutritious food is a necessity for a healthy and prosperous lifestyle. Research has demonstrated that good nutrition is essential for healthy physical and social development. The Economic Research Service reports that households experiencing food insecurity have been characterized as likely to worry that they will run out of food, and often the food they are able to purchase does not last. Without food access, an individual faces disadvantages economically, socially, and in terms of their health.
Louisville currently ranks 5th among its peer cities in food insecurity with 16.1% of residents experiencing food insecurity. Additionally, Louisville ranks 2nd in rates of children who live in a household experiencing food insecurity with a rate of 17%. The USDA defines food insecurity as lacking enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle for all members of the household.
Louisville ranks among the middle tier on food insecurity according to a natural breaks algorithm. Additionally, Louisville ranks among the top tier on child food insecurity according to a natural breaks algorithm. Cities in green are those that outperform their peers, cities in yellow represent the middle cluster, and those in red are a group that lags behind its peers on this indicator.
Louisville’s rate of food insecurity has decreased from 2013 to 2015. During this time period, Louisville’s rate of food insecurity was lower than its peer city average. Similar trends are observed in the food insecurity rates of children. In terms child food insecurity, Louisville’s rate is far below that of the 25th percentile of its peers.
Food deserts are a weakness in a city infrastructure’s ability to provide poorer residents with access to healthy food options. A lack of access to nutritious food options multiplies the barriers to health and wellbeing that individuals who live in multidimensional poverty face daily. For many living in food deserts, gas stations or convenience stores are the closest options for obtaining sustenance. For individuals already experiencing multidimensional poverty, living in a food desert can lead to malnutrition, obesity, or decreased educational and economic achievement.
Louisville currently ranks 10th among its peers in households living in a food desert with 3.56% of households living in a food desert. A household is considered in a food desert if the household is in a low-income census tract, does not have a vehicle, and is farther than a half mile away from a supermarket.
Louisville ranks among the middle tier on this metric according to a natural breaks algorithm. Cities in green are those that outperform their peers, cities in yellow represent the middle cluster, and those in red are a group that lags behind its peers on this indicator.
For each indicator, Greater Louisville Project assigns cities into one of three groups (high-performing, middle-of-the-pack, and low-performing) based on how they compare to other cities. The assignment is based on how cities naturally cluster on that indicator. Sometimes, the differences between cities are very small, and the difference between a city ranked 5th and 6th could simply be a matter of the sampling error that arises from using survey data. Thus, rather than always make a division that declares the top 5 to be the top tier, we use a natural breaks algorithm to look for a cluster of cities that is outperforming the rest, a cluster that is about average, and a cluster that is lagging. This clustering gives us a better indication of where Louisville is thriving and where Louisville has room to learn from cities that are doing better.
Z-scores (or standardization) is a way to combine data with different units of measurement into a single index. The z-score is a measure of how far away a city (or census tract, etc.) is from the average city. In order to be comparable across different units of measurement, the z-score is the distance from the mean measured in standard deviations (e.g. if Louisville has a z-score of 1 it means Louisville is 1 standard deviation above the mean of its peer cities).
Data from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's County Health Rankings use z-scores and all z-scores are relative to the mean of Louisville's peer cities. (On the County Health Rankings site z-scores are relative to all the counties in each state - thus z-scores reported by GLP will be different, because we are using a different reference group). The Greater Louisville Project also uses z-scores in our multidimensional poverty index, which compares each census tract to the mean of all census tracts in Louisville.
