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      GINI Index of Income Inequality Data

      A summary of the Census GINI Index of Income Inequality Data specification.

      1.0 Introduction

      The GINI Index of Income Inequality datasets are reported once per year by the United States Census. Through statistical means, the data reflect the income dispersion across a defined boundary. The dataset is available to download through the Urban SDK Data Hub for the years 2015 - 2020. The data has been aggregated to the census tract.

      The GINI index is a statistical measure, used to explain income inequality. The index calculates a value between 0 -1. GINI values of 0 indicate perfect equality (where the population receives an equal share), to 1, perfect inequality (where only one recipient or group of recipients in the population receives all of the income).

      The GINI coefficient is calculated by the mathematical difference between the Lorenz curve (the observed cumulative income distribution) and the notion of perfectly equal income distribution.

      GINI Coefficient Categories

      Scores range from 0 to 1

      • Zero = perfect equality

      • 1 = perfect inequality

      2.0 Data Specification

      The following table is the format in which downloaded GINI Index of Income Inequality data will be provided:

      Field

      Type

      Description

      geo_id

      String

      14-digit code relating the data to the correct geolocation.

      census_tract_code

      String

      The unique identifier provided by the US Census for each census tract.

      sub_category

      String

      GINI Index.

      unit

      String

      Arbitrary.

      value

      Float

      GINI calculation of equality (between 0-1).

      year

      String

      Year data was collected.

      county_name

      String

      Name of the county that the census tract resides in.

      state_name

      String

      Name of the state that the census tract resides in.

      geometry

      String

      The GIS information required for the computer to read the mapping file.

      💡Tip: The “GEO.ID” field contains 14-digit codes that identify the summary level of data, the geographic component of the data, and FIPS codes that uniquely identify the data. For example, the 14-digit “GEO.ID” for Harris County, TX is “0500000US48201” where “050” represents the summary level of the data, “0000” represents the 2-digit geographic variant, and the 2-digit geographic component, “US” represents the United States, “48” represents the state of Texas and “201” represents Harris County.