Best and Worst Cities to Move to Middle or Upper Class
Income mobility – moving from lower middle to middle to upper middle income – varies depending on where you live. Statistical research conducted by the Equality of Opportunity Project identified areas with the greatest and least mobility.
According to researchers, the areas with the highest vertical mobility have five things in common: less segregation, less income inequality, better schools, more social capital, and more stable families.
Based on the data that you can view in its entirety here , the New York Times has created a map above showing the odds of a child starting in the bottom fifth of income to move up to the top fifth percentile of income. (The first fifth is a household income of over $ 70,000 for a child by age 30, or over $ 100,000 by age 40.) Skip to the full article for an interactive version that you can hover over the area.
To take another look at the data, Amanda and Shan Carter created the chart below, which they placed on the charts . By tracing the lines, you can determine the chances that children growing up in the bottom quintile will move to the middle class or top quintile.