Originally Posted by GomerPyle
Originally Posted by abolt300
The median household income in Alabama was approximately $66,700 in 2024, according to USAFacts. This represents a significant increase, often reported around $65,560–$66,700, marking a 4.1% rise from 2023. While income is rising, Alabama's median household income generally trails the national median.

Key income statistics for Alabama:
Top Counties: Shelby County leads with a median income of over $100,000, followed by Madison County (Huntsville) at roughly $89,000.
Income Distribution: Around 16% of households make less than $50,000, while a notable portion of households fall in the $100,000–$149,999 range.
Recent Trends: The 2024 figures represent the largest single-year increase in inflation-adjusted income in the last decade.
Data based on US Census Bureau surveys, Federal Reserve data.

My take: The poor counties in Alabama are exceptionally poor, due to demographics, lack of mobility, lack of initiative, and lack of education. Affordability is extremely localized. I'm sure that Wilcox and Dallas counties alone, probably pull the overall median Alabama household income down by at least $10,000. LOL Throw in Choctaw, Clarke, Sumpter, and Washington and now your probably knocking $15,000 off the median. Outside of the larger metropolitan and surrounding areas, Bham, Huntsville, Mobile, etc, the state as a whole, lacks opportunity due to companies not wanting to locate to and invest in these areas due to once again demographics, population, and lack of qualified/educated/quality potential employees. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy that is not really getting any better due to Meemaw and her cronies. Typical rich get rich and poor get poorer.
^^^doesn't understand the difference between "median" and "mean"^^^

"median" household income is used specifically so that the exceptionally poor and exceptionally wealthy areas don't skew the data. Now, if you used "mean" (Average) household income, then your point would be valid.
I understand perfectly how to calculate median income. There are 2.5million households in Alabama. You take the income for every single household in Alabama and you plot them on a line from the lowest to the highest and then you pick the exact middle of the line and see what that income level is and that’s your median for that data set. Here’s the problem with Alabama. The “takers” and cheaters are equal in number to the “makers”. If you drop out just the 400,000 households living on welfare alone, where nobody works, with zero reported income, then drop out the 250,000 or so households of baby mommas claiming they are single don’t make anything, while they collect welfare and baby daddy lives with them but lists a P.O. Box as his address, you’ve now shifted the middle point of that line 25% further toward the higher income side. Both groups should be eliminated from the calculation because they are not contributing anything to society. Not because they can’t, but because they are enabled to not participate. They aren’t buying houses or working jobs. They are simply leaches. They are convenient pawns in the calculation to make things appear, and people think things are actually worse than they are. Digruntled populaces, believing they can never get ahead, are the ones that start thinking that price control, universal income, universal healthcare, collectivism and cradle to grave govt assistance are all great ideas. It makes Carl Marx smile and laugh. Welfare was designed to disrupt the nuclear family, capture the black vote in perpetuity and instead it has now captured almost 50% of the US population. If you calculate the median income using only the actual “working” families in Alabama, the number is much much higher.