Methodology

Data Source

All data on this site comes from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates. We use the most recent available vintage (2024), which covers the period 2020–2024.

The ACS is an ongoing survey that samples approximately 3.5 million households annually. Five-year estimates combine 60 months of data, providing statistically reliable estimates for all geographic areas down to the census tract level.

Geographic Coverage

We provide data for three geographic levels:

• Counties — All 3,222 counties and county-equivalents (parishes, boroughs, census areas, and independent cities)
• States — All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories
• Zip Codes (ZCTAs) — All 33,772 Zip Code Tabulation Areas

ZCTAs are geographic areas defined by the Census Bureau to approximate zip code delivery areas. They may differ from USPS zip codes.

Metrics

We compute 12 core metrics from ACS tables:

• Total Population (B01003)
• Median Household Income (B19013)
• Per Capita Income (B19301)
• Poverty Rate (B17001)
• Median Home Value (B25077)
• Median Gross Rent (B25064)
• Homeownership Rate (B25003)
• Bachelor's Degree or Higher (B15003)
• Unemployment Rate (B23025)
• Median Age (B01002)
• Health Insurance Coverage (B27001)
• Mean Commute Time (B08303)

Derived metrics (poverty rate, homeownership rate, etc.) are computed by dividing the relevant numerator variable by the denominator variable from the same ACS table.

Rankings

National rankings are computed across all counties with valid data for each metric. For most metrics, higher values receive rank #1 (e.g., income, population). For poverty rate and unemployment rate, lower values receive rank #1 (lower is better).

Percentiles indicate what percentage of counties fall below a given county's value. A county in the 90th percentile scores higher than 90% of all counties.

Limitations

• All ACS values are estimates based on survey samples and are subject to margin of error
• Five-year estimates reflect conditions over a 60-month period, not a single point in time
• Small-population areas may have larger margins of error
• Some values may be suppressed by the Census Bureau for data quality or privacy reasons
• ZCTA boundaries are approximations and may not match current USPS delivery areas

Data Pipeline

Data is fetched directly from the Census Bureau's public API, transformed and enriched with computed metrics and rankings, then rendered into static HTML pages at build time. The site contains no database and requires no server — every page is pre-generated.

Contact

For questions about the data or methodology, or to report an error, please open an issue on our GitHub repository.