Data

Two ways to count income. Here’s how the numbers become the map.

Process

Both maps show average annual income per household for 2018–2022, in 2022 dollars. Each source supplies an area’s income total, and we divide both by the same Census Bureau household count.

Tax records

IRS

Income reported on tax returns: wages, realized capital gains, and other income. We use adjusted gross income (AGI).

Add income by areaAdd returns for the matched postal ZIP for each tax year, 2018–2022.
Convert to 2022 dollarsAdjust each year’s total for inflation.
Find the annual averageAdd the five adjusted totals, then divide by 5.
Divide by householdsUse the area’s ACS household count.

Annual average AGIACS households =IRS income
per household

Household survey

Census Bureau

The American Community Survey (ACS) counts wages, interest, dividends, and other money income. It excludes capital gains.

Use the five-year estimateACS 2018–2022 estimates are already in 2022 dollars.
Add income by areaUse aggregate household income from the matched Census ZIP area (ZCTA).
Add household countsUse counts from the same ZCTA.
Divide income by householdsThis gives the mean, rather than the median.

ACS aggregate incomeACS households =Census income
per household

ACS estimates are already annual and in 2022 dollars. No extra division by 5 or inflation adjustment.

Same household count; different income definitions and coverage. We do not match individual tax returns to households or treat the gap as an exact amount of missing income.

Downloads

CSV

All areas and all fields, ready for a spreadsheet.

Metadata

Field definitions, years and pull dates, as JSON.

Columns

Blank cells mean unavailable or withheld. All fields are included in the CSV and GeoJSON, and only two are offered as map layers. Older per-return IRS dollar fields remain nominal unless their names end in _2022.

Field	Definition	Unit / source

The downloads also retain Census medians, margins of error, high-income-return statistics and nominal IRS per-return fields. They are not additional map layers. Census medians and their margins of error describe each mapped ZCTA.

Partnership and S-corporation income may combine income from work and ownership. It remains in the downloads and is excluded from our investment subtotal.

Source dates are recorded in the metadata download.

Free to reuse with attribution. Include the measure, unit, years, geography, publisher and Wealth NJ’s method, and do not label these income measures as net worth. Suggested citation: Wealth NJ, annual income per household, IRS and Census Bureau, 2018–2022, in 2022 dollars, mapped to 2020 Census ZCTAs. Source pull dates are in the metadata download.

Sources

“Pulled” is when we downloaded the source, not the period it measures. Metadata includes dates for individual files. Boundary and relationship files identify the mapped areas.

Notes

Exact fields and inflation formula

AGI is income after certain adjustments, before standard or itemized deductions. For each area, sum IRS field A00100 across assigned ZIPs and income brackets for each year. IRS dollar fields are reported in thousands, so multiply by 1,000 first.

Adjusted AGI for year y = A00100_y × 1,000 × (292.655 ÷ CPI-U_y)

IRS income / household = (adjusted AGI₂₀₁₈ + … + adjusted AGI₂₀₂₂) ÷ 5 ÷ households

Census income / household = Σ B19025 income ÷ Σ B19001 households

Σ means “add across the ZCTAs assigned to the area.” We use the total estimate in each ACS table.

2018: 251.107
2019: 255.657
2020: 258.811
2021: 270.970
2022: 292.655

BLS all-items CPI-U, U.S. city average, annual averages, not seasonally adjusted; series CUUR0000SA0. BLS annual CPI indexes, verified September 29, 2026. Census retains its own published inflation adjustment.

Investment income and shares

We add three IRS amounts: taxable interest, ordinary dividends, and net capital gains. We adjust each year for inflation, then average the five years, just as we do for AGI.

Investment income = taxable interest + ordinary dividends + net capital gains

IRS fields A00300 + A00600 + A01000. This subtotal excludes tax-exempt interest, rents, royalties, and partnership income. The NJ total includes mapped areas with published IRS figures.

From dollars to stacks

Both sources use the same scale. Twice the income means twice the height; $1.2 million per household reaches 8,500 map meters. Zooming does not change that scale. Read height, rather than stack volume: ZIP areas have different land areas.

$0$100k$300k$1.2m+

The brightest color covers $1.2 million and above; height continues to rise. These color stops are shared by both maps. Their dollar intervals are unequal. Flat view helps reveal areas behind tall stacks. A selected area turns gold.

How ZIP codes become NJ map areas

We use 2020 Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs) whose land lies at least half in New Jersey, based on Census county relationship files. Each ZCTA is matched to the same five-digit IRS postal ZIP within New Jersey. Postal ZIPs and Census ZCTAs differ; this is an area-level match.

PO-box and unique postal ZIPs without a ZCTA are excluded. Their income is not redistributed. ZCTAs crossing the state border retain their whole Census estimates and boundaries, while IRS totals contain only New Jersey returns. The downloads record the share of ZCTA land in New Jersey.

IRS figures are withheld below 1,000 returns in 2022 or without all five tax years. This publication threshold is our comparison rule, not an IRS confidentiality requirement. It also covers small residential ZIPs. Areas without households have no per-household value; unavailable values are not zero.

The principal municipality and county have the largest land overlap with the ZCTA. Search also matches other intersecting NJ municipalities and counties. These are area labels, not municipal or county income estimates. A filing address does not locate a filer’s assets.

Concentration

How we choose these areas

Rank areas by nominal investment income per tax return, then take the leading group in that ranking whose total reaches at least half of mapped investment income. Both bars describe that same group, using pooled 2018–2022 income and returns from areas with published IRS data. This supplementary chart uses original-year dollars; the map uses inflation-adjusted dollars.

Browse

Compare all NJ ZIP areas. Select a ZIP area to see it on the map. Both income columns are annual averages per household, in 2022 dollars.

Filter by ZIP code, municipality, or county

Sort by

Average annual income per household in 2022 dollars, from the IRS and Census Bureau.
ZIP area / municipality	IRS Income / household	Census Bureau Income / household	Investment share of IRS income
Loading data…

“Investment share” is taxable interest, ordinary dividends, and net capital gains as a share of IRS income. Blank or unavailable values do not mean zero.

Limits

Income is a flow of money, and net worth is assets minus debts. These maps do not measure unsold gains or complete household wealth.
Area averages can be pulled up by a few very large incomes. They do not describe a typical household or identify owners.
Nonfilers and income missing from returns are outside the IRS totals. Survey estimates have sampling error; the downloads include 90% margins for household counts and aggregate income. Small denominators can make averages unstable. The two sources count income differently.
These figures cover 2018–2022. Averaging reduces year-to-year swings from asset sales, but it also blends different economic conditions.

See the Census Bureau’s definitions of money income and wealth.