Income and Living Standards within the Eighth District

In this article, we have look at the distribution of living standards in terms of the purchasing power of real per capita personal income by county using RPPs. Adjusting income for cost of living allows us to evaluate inequality in income?s local purchasing power instead of income per se. We see that overall inequality is not so severe in the District once adjusted for the cost of living, both across counties and in comparison to the nation. We also see that living standards tend to be higher within MSAs than outside them. In general, inequality is less severe when measured by living standards than by income per se. Still, finer micro-data is necessary to better understand heterogeneity within each county.