Counties where children have the best opportunity for economic mobility in Iowa
This story originally appeared on Wealth Enhancement Group and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
Counties where children have the best opportunity for economic mobility in Iowa
Americans have long understood that their birthplace can significantly affect their futures, and academics have increasingly been able to connect tangible early life factors like where they live and the friendships they've cultivated with potential future income.
Among the most recent studies shedding light on what's known as economic mobility—a person's ability to move themselves and their families up the socioeconomic ladder over their lifetime—are a series of papers authored by Harvard University researchers leveraging vast troves of social networking data.
As part of a national analysis, Wealth Enhancement Group used data from Harvard University's Social Capital Atlas project to identify where in Iowa children have the best (and worst) chances at upward economic mobility.
The research draws on a privacy-protected dataset representing 21 billion friendships from Facebook made public through its parent company Meta's Data for Good project. It also uses anonymous tax records, according to the authors. The scholars assigned a score to locales according to how economically connected low- and high-income people living in the area have historically been over at least a decade, per that data. The dataset does not include scores for about 180 of the 3,000 or so counties in the U.S.
The research attempts to fill in the gaps of previous efforts to study American economic mobility that did not consider a person's vast social networks nor their importance in creating better lives for themselves and their children.
It turns out the ability to cultivate friendships linking people of different socioeconomic backgrounds with one another is the strongest factor in determining whether a child can surpass the earning potential of their parents, Harvard researchers found. They call this economic connectedness.
Read on to find out where economic connectedness is strongest in your state.
#50. Ringgold County
- Median Income: $57,700
- Population: 4,739
--- 95.5% white
--- 0.1% Black
--- 0% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.2% Asian
#49. Jackson County
- Median Income: $65,541
- Population: 19,499
--- 96.5% white
--- 0.5% Black
--- 0% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.5% Asian
#48. Linn County
- Median Income: $70,360
- Population: 228,567
--- 86.4% white
--- 5.9% Black
--- 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 2.3% Asian
#47. Monona County
- Median Income: $56,107
- Population: 8,732
--- 95.6% white
--- 0.2% Black
--- 0.9% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0% Asian
#46. Winnebago County
- Median Income: $56,578
- Population: 10,743
--- 93.8% white
--- 0.8% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 2.7% Asian
#45. Dubuque County
- Median Income: $68,198
- Population: 98,687
--- 91.2% white
--- 3% Black
--- 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.3% Asian
#44. Kossuth County
- Median Income: $59,878
- Population: 14,823
--- 95.4% white
--- 0.5% Black
--- 0.7% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.5% Asian
#43. Poweshiek County
- Median Income: $56,080
- Population: 18,628
--- 92.4% white
--- 1.2% Black
--- 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 2.2% Asian
#42. Hancock County
- Median Income: $64,730
- Population: 10,837
--- 95.5% white
--- 1.2% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.3% Asian
#41. Hardin County
- Median Income: $58,845
- Population: 16,997
--- 93.4% white
--- 1.1% Black
--- 1.6% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.8% Asian
#40. Washington County
- Median Income: $66,908
- Population: 22,525
--- 92.6% white
--- 0.6% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.5% Asian
#39. Greene County
- Median Income: $52,768
- Population: 8,831
--- 94.9% white
--- 0.3% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.5% Asian
#38. Worth County
- Median Income: $63,795
- Population: 7,450
--- 95.2% white
--- 0.7% Black
--- 0% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.5% Asian
#37. Humboldt County
- Median Income: $60,008
- Population: 9,622
--- 95.5% white
--- 0.2% Black
--- 0% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.9% Asian
#36. Plymouth County
- Median Income: $74,239
- Population: 25,543
--- 93.6% white
--- 1.7% Black
--- 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.4% Asian
#35. Shelby County
- Median Income: $62,222
- Population: 11,750
--- 95.7% white
--- 1.1% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0% Asian
#34. Adair County
- Median Income: $57,944
- Population: 7,439
--- 97.1% white
--- 0.6% Black
--- 0% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.9% Asian
#33. Dallas County
- Median Income: $93,492
- Population: 96,604
--- 86.7% white
--- 2% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 4.5% Asian
#32. Chickasaw County
- Median Income: $67,146
- Population: 12,021
--- 97.4% white
--- 0.6% Black
--- 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0% Asian
#31. O'Brien County
- Median Income: $62,292
- Population: 14,139
--- 92.9% white
--- 1.6% Black
--- 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.7% Asian
#30. Jones County
- Median Income: $63,279
- Population: 20,680
--- 93.6% white
--- 2.2% Black
--- 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.7% Asian
#29. Ida County
- Median Income: $57,266
- Population: 6,979
--- 95.7% white
--- 1.4% Black
--- 0% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.1% Asian
#28. Cherokee County
- Median Income: $59,881
- Population: 11,606
--- 93.4% white
--- 1.4% Black
--- 0% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.4% Asian
#27. Palo Alto County
- Median Income: $59,988
- Population: 8,996
--- 93.8% white
--- 1.5% Black
--- 0% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.5% Asian
#26. Marion County
- Median Income: $66,822
- Population: 33,381
--- 94.8% white
--- 1% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1.2% Asian
#25. Howard County
- Median Income: $60,387
- Population: 9,456
--- 96.5% white
--- 0.3% Black
--- 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.2% Asian
#24. Audubon County
- Median Income: $54,643
- Population: 5,657
--- 96.2% white
--- 0.5% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0% Asian
#23. Harrison County
- Median Income: $67,950
- Population: 14,589
--- 97.1% white
--- 0.2% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.2% Asian
#22. Guthrie County
- Median Income: $67,625
- Population: 10,599
--- 95.1% white
--- 0.3% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.2% Asian
#21. Mills County
- Median Income: $77,926
- Population: 14,658
--- 96.5% white
--- 0.3% Black
--- 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.3% Asian
#20. Johnson County
- Median Income: $67,414
- Population: 151,833
--- 79.8% white
--- 7.2% Black
--- 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 6.1% Asian
#19. Calhoun County
- Median Income: $60,434
- Population: 9,962
--- 94.3% white
--- 1.6% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.4% Asian
#18. Carroll County
- Median Income: $61,157
- Population: 20,756
--- 94.1% white
--- 0.3% Black
--- 0.5% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.7% Asian
#17. Boone County
- Median Income: $70,984
- Population: 26,721
--- 95.6% white
--- 1.2% Black
--- 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.3% Asian
#16. Delaware County
- Median Income: $69,319
- Population: 17,508
--- 96.6% white
--- 0.1% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.3% Asian
#15. Iowa County
- Median Income: $64,720
- Population: 16,596
--- 95.7% white
--- 0.7% Black
--- 0% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.2% Asian
#14. Dickinson County
- Median Income: $65,215
- Population: 17,536
--- 95.4% white
--- 0.1% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.9% Asian
#13. Warren County
- Median Income: $85,189
- Population: 51,862
--- 94.9% white
--- 0.8% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.8% Asian
#12. Clayton County
- Median Income: $58,148
- Population: 17,173
--- 96.6% white
--- 0.3% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.3% Asian
#11. Buchanan County
- Median Income: $71,024
- Population: 20,598
--- 96.9% white
--- 0.6% Black
--- 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.1% Asian
#10. Benton County
- Median Income: $72,334
- Population: 25,654
--- 96% white
--- 0.3% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.3% Asian
#9. Cedar County
- Median Income: $72,714
- Population: 18,494
--- 96.8% white
--- 0.6% Black
--- 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.7% Asian
#8. Mitchell County
- Median Income: $60,991
- Population: 10,526
--- 97.4% white
--- 0.5% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.8% Asian
#7. Butler County
- Median Income: $61,109
- Population: 14,421
--- 96.4% white
--- 0.5% Black
--- 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.8% Asian
#6. Madison County
- Median Income: $79,306
- Population: 16,414
--- 96.6% white
--- 0.9% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1% Asian
#5. Lyon County
- Median Income: $69,113
- Population: 11,953
--- 95.9% white
--- 0.1% Black
--- 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.6% Asian
#4. Grundy County
- Median Income: $74,552
- Population: 12,336
--- 97% white
--- 0.7% Black
--- 0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.3% Asian
#3. Story County
- Median Income: $62,578
- Population: 98,106
--- 84.5% white
--- 2.3% Black
--- 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 7.6% Asian
#2. Bremer County
- Median Income: $76,782
- Population: 24,863
--- 94.8% white
--- 0.9% Black
--- 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 1% Asian
#1. Winneshiek County
- Median Income: $65,330
- Population: 20,100
--- 95.8% white
--- 0.9% Black
--- 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native
--- 0.7% Asian
This story features data reporting and writing by Dom DiFurio and is part of a series utilizing data automation across 50 states.