Household Income uses the county-level median household income, which helps us understand the financial resources and economic well-being of the typical household in a community.
How is it scored?
County-level median household incomes were scaled from 0 to 100 based on percentiles (0, 25th, 50th, 75th, 100th) for all counties in Michigan using threshold-specific equations, with higher household incomes scoring better (Table 1).
Table 1. Equations used to convert county-level median household incomes to a 0–100 scale.
Median Household Income Threshold | Report Card Score | Equation |
> 57,414 | 100–75 | y = 0.0009x + 21.562 |
> 51,470 | 74–50 | y = 0.0042x - 166.48 |
> 47,189 | 49–25 | y = 0.0058x - 250.57 |
< 47,189 | 24–0 | y = 0.0028x - 108.56 |
Population-weighted county scores were summed to calculate the watershed score. Watershed scores were weighted by their population size to calculate an overall score for southeast Michigan.
Data source: Data was downloaded at the county-level from the US Census Bureau (US Census Bureau) for 2020.