Chart assignment
Charts to read and discuss
Read each chart, then answer its questions. Every chart shows its source and date; open it for a table of the numbers and the data to download.
Chart 1 of 2 · Income tax
What is the average income on tax returns in your ZIP code?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
Type any ZIP code to see the average income on the tax returns filed from it in tax year 2023, next to its state's and the U.S. average of $96,717. ZIP code 20001 in Washington, D.C., shown first, averaged $126,264. In tax year 2022, across the 27,588 ZIP codes in the data, half averaged less than about $68,300, and the highest was Fisher Island, Florida (33109), at $4.4 million on 400 returns. Income here is adjusted gross income, the income on a tax return after a few adjustments; an average can be pulled far up by a few very large incomes, and one return can cover a married couple. The IRS leaves out ZIP codes with fewer than 100 returns, single buildings and nonresidential ZIP codes, and returns with negative income. Tax year 2023 is the newest year the IRS has published by ZIP code.
Questions to discuss
- In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
- Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
- Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?
Source: IRS Statistics of Income, individual income tax ZIP code data (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2023
Open the chart and its numbersChart 2 of 2 · Wealth
How is U.S. household wealth divided?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
At the end of June 2026, the wealthiest 1% of U.S. households held 32.5% of all household wealth, the next 9% held 36.4%, the next 40% held 28.8% and the bottom 50% held 2.3%. In 1989 the shares were 22.8%, 38.0%, 35.7% and 3.5%. Wealth here is net worth: what households own (homes, stocks and mutual funds, pensions and retirement accounts, private businesses, cars and other belongings, bank deposits) minus what they owe (mortgages, credit cards, student and car loans). The Fed estimates each quarter by combining its Financial Accounts with its Survey of Consumer Finances, taken every three years, so the newest quarters are estimates that get revised.
How to read this chart
Each bar is one group of U.S. households' share of all household wealth, so the four bars add up to 100%. The groups are different sizes: the top 1% is one household in every hundred, while the bottom 50% is half of all households. Compare each group's share of wealth with its share of households.
Questions to discuss
- Which group holds the largest share of wealth? Is it the group with the most households?
- If wealth were split evenly, what share would the bottom 50% hold? How far is the chart from that?
- The takeaway gives the 1989 shares too. Which groups gained a share since then, and which lost one?
Source: Federal Reserve Board, Distributional Financial Accounts (Public domain (Federal Reserve Board; cite the Board as the source)) · Data as of Jun 30, 2026
Open the chart and its numbersTeachers: make your own chart assignment, or change this one. Free, no account needed.