ACS 5-year Median Household Income (block Group)

Overview

The ACS 5-Year Median Household Income dataset reports the median household income (in nominal dollars of the release ending year) for each Census block group in the United States. Published annually by the U.S. Census Bureau as part of the ACS 5-year estimates program, which pools five years of survey responses to provide statistically reliable estimates at small geographies.

Data Description

Each row carries the geoid, state/county FIPS, tract, block_group, name label, year_end (e.g. 2024 = the 2020-2024 release), vintage (2010 or 2020), median_hh_income, and median_hh_income_moe (90% margin of error).

Census suppresses estimates for block groups with too few sampled households; the published sentinel value -666666666 is mapped to NULL. Median income is top-coded by the Census Bureau at $250,001 — any block group whose true median exceeds that ceiling will report exactly $250,001.

Income values are reported in nominal dollars of the release ending year — not adjusted for inflation. Use the BLS CPI or BEA implicit deflator for real-dollar comparisons.

Coverage

Geographic Coverage: All Census block groups in the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Approximately 220,000-242,000 block groups per release year depending on Census's BG redraws.

Temporal Coverage: ACS 5-year releases ending 2013 through 2024 (12 release years). Block-group data for ACS releases prior to year_end 2013 is not exposed via the Census Data API (only available as static ZIP files on census.gov).

Observation Level: One row per Census block group per ACS 5-year release year per geometry vintage (keyed by geoid + year_end + vintage).

Vintage Information: Two block-group geographic vintages appear across these datasets because the U.S. Census Bureau redrew block-group boundaries after the 2020 Decennial Census. A vintage column distinguishes the two: '2010' for releases ending 2013-2021 (using 2010 Census BG boundaries) and '2020' for releases ending 2022 and later (using 2020 Census BG boundaries). Block-group GEOIDs do not align 1:1 between vintages — the same physical land area can have a different GEOID before and after the 2020 redraw. Cross-vintage joins should use a Census-published block-group relationship file.

Methodology

Pulled from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates via the public Census Data API.

Additional Notes

All Census Bureau data is in the public domain.

This dataset shares the same geographic key (geoid) and temporal columns (year_end, vintage) as the other Census datasets, so they can be joined row-for-row within a vintage.

For trend analyses crossing the 2021→2022 vintage boundary, restrict the cohort to one vintage or apply a Census-published block-group relationship crosswalk.

Licensing and redistribution. U.S. Census Bureau data products are works of the United States Government and are not subject to copyright: "Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government" (17 U.S.C. § 105). Dewey redistributes this processed extract on that public-domain basis. The Census Bureau requests (but does not require) citation, and prohibits using the data to "identify any individual person, household, business or other entity" — a confidentiality obligation that passes through to users of this dataset. This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.