Data

Two ways to count income. Here’s how the numbers become the map.

Download CSVAll areas and fields · spreadsheet ready Download GeoJSONThe same data with map boundaries Download metadataField definitions, years, and pull dates

Source dates are recorded in the metadata download.

Two sources, one household count

Both maps show average annual income per household for 2018–2022, in 2022 dollars. Each source supplies an area’s income total. We divide both by the same Census Bureau household count.

Tax records

IRS

Income reported on tax returns: wages, realized capital gains, and other income. We use adjusted gross income (AGI).

Add income by areaCombine assigned postal ZIPs for each tax year, 2018–2022.
Convert to 2022 dollarsAdjust each year’s total for inflation.
Find the annual averageAdd the five adjusted totals, then divide by 5.
Divide by householdsUse the area’s ACS household count.

Annual average AGIACS households =IRS income
per household

Household survey

Census Bureau

The American Community Survey (ACS) counts wages, interest, dividends, and other money income. It excludes capital gains.

Use the five-year estimateACS 2018–2022 estimates are already in 2022 dollars.
Add income by areaCombine aggregate household income from assigned Census ZIP areas (ZCTAs).
Add household countsCombine counts from the same ZCTAs.
Divide income by householdsThis gives the mean, rather than the median.

ACS aggregate incomeACS households =Census income
per household

ACS estimates are already annual and in 2022 dollars. No extra division by 5 or inflation adjustment.

Same household count; different income definitions and coverage. We do not match individual tax returns to households or treat the gap as an exact amount of missing income.

Exact fields and inflation formula

AGI is income after certain adjustments, before standard or itemized deductions. For each area, sum IRS field A00100 across assigned ZIPs and income brackets for each year. IRS dollar fields are reported in thousands, so multiply by 1,000 first.

Adjusted AGI for year y = A00100_y × 1,000 × (292.655 ÷ CPI-U_y)

IRS income / household = (adjusted AGI₂₀₁₈ + … + adjusted AGI₂₀₂₂) ÷ 5 ÷ households

Census income / household = Σ B19025 income ÷ Σ B19001 households

Σ means “add across the ZCTAs assigned to the area.” We use the total estimate in each ACS table.

2018: 251.107
2019: 255.657
2020: 258.811
2021: 270.970
2022: 292.655

BLS all-items CPI-U, U.S. city average, annual averages, not seasonally adjusted; series CUUR0000SA0. BLS annual CPI indexes, verified September 29, 2026. Census retains its own published inflation adjustment.

Investment income and shares

We add three IRS amounts: taxable interest, ordinary dividends, and net capital gains. We adjust each year for inflation, then average the five years, just as we do for AGI.

Investment income = taxable interest + ordinary dividends + net capital gains

IRS fields A00300 + A00600 + A01000. This subtotal excludes tax-exempt interest, rents, royalties, and partnership income. The NYC total includes mapped areas with published IRS figures.

From dollars to stacks

Both sources use the same scale. Twice the income means twice the height; $1.2 million per household reaches 8,500 map meters. Zooming does not change that scale. Read height, rather than stack volume: ZIP areas have different land areas.

$0$100k$300k$1.2m

These color stops are shared by both maps. Their dollar intervals are unequal. Flat view helps reveal areas behind tall stacks. A selected area turns gold.

How ZIP codes become 177 map areas

We use NYC Health’s modified ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (MODZCTAs). Each boundary lists ZIP and ZCTA codes; those lists assign IRS postal ZIPs and Census ZCTAs to the map areas. Postal ZIPs, Census ZCTAs, and MODZCTAs do not line up exactly. This is an area-level join, not an address-level match.

IRS postal ZIPs
+ Census ZCTAsNYC Health
boundary code lists177 map areas

We exclude mostly Nassau ZCTAs 11001, 11003, and 11040, and the catch-all code 99999. IRS figures are withheld for areas with fewer than 1,000 returns in 2022. Unavailable values are not zero.

Neighborhood names come from the residential Neighborhood Tabulation Area with the largest overlap. Names are approximate and may repeat. A filing address does not locate a filer’s assets.

Where investment income concentrates

How we choose these areas

Rank areas by nominal investment income per tax return, then take the smallest group whose total exceeds half of mapped investment income. Both bars describe that same group, using pooled 2018–2022 income and returns from areas with published IRS data. This supplementary chart uses original-year dollars; the map uses inflation-adjusted dollars.

Browse the areas

Compare all 177 areas. Select a ZIP area to see it on the map. Both income columns are annual averages per household, in 2022 dollars.

Filter by ZIP code, neighborhood, or borough

Sort by

Average annual income per household in 2022 dollars, from the IRS and Census Bureau.
ZIP area / neighborhood	IRS Income / household	Census Bureau Income / household	Investment share of IRS income
Loading data…

“Investment share” is taxable interest, ordinary dividends, and net capital gains as a share of IRS income. Blank or unavailable values do not mean zero.

What the numbers leave out

Wealth. Income is a flow of money. Net worth is assets minus debts. These maps do not measure unsold gains or complete household wealth.
Individual households. Area averages can be pulled up by a few very large incomes. They do not describe a typical household or identify owners.
Complete coverage. Nonfilers and income missing from returns are outside the IRS totals. Survey estimates have sampling error; the two sources count income differently.
Today’s income. These figures cover 2018–2022. Averaging reduces year-to-year swings from asset sales, but also blends different economic conditions.

See the Census Bureau’s definitions of money income and wealth.

Other research fields in the downloads

The CSV and GeoJSON retain Census medians, margins of error, high-income-return statistics, and nominal IRS per-return fields. They are not additional map layers. Census medians and their margins of error come from each area’s representative ZCTA; they are not combined medians across its assigned ZIP codes.

Property-sale fields cover one-to-three family homes, co-ops, and condos sold in 2023–2025. They describe transactions, not residents’ assets. We exclude sales below $100,000 and repeated borough–block–date–price records, which can indicate portfolio sales. This can also remove unrelated sales at the same price. Medians require at least 20 remaining sales.

Partnership and S-corporation income may combine income from work and ownership. It remains in the downloads and is excluded from our investment subtotal.

Sources and dates

“Pulled” is when we downloaded the source, rather than the period it measures. Metadata includes dates for individual files. Property sales are retained only in the research downloads.

Download field guide

Blank cells mean unavailable or withheld. All fields are included in the CSV and GeoJSON; only two are offered as map layers. Older per-return IRS dollar fields remain nominal unless their names end in _2022. The downloads also retain Census medians and their margins of error, plus research fields on high-income returns.

Show all download fields

Field	Definition	Unit / source

Reuse

Code is licensed under BSD 3-Clause. Source data retain their publishers' terms. When you reuse a figure, include the measure, unit, years, geography, publisher, and Wealth NYC's method. Do not label these income measures as net worth.

Suggested citation: Wealth NYC, annual income per household, IRS and Census Bureau, 2018–2022, in 2022 dollars, mapped to NYC Health MODZCTAs. Source pull dates are in the metadata download.