Did you know that aggregate household income can vary by a factor of 91x between Pittsburgh neighborhoods?
New data from the U.S. Census Bureau — published on Data.gov — reveals a striking disparity hiding in plain sight across Pittsburgh's neighborhoods.
When you look at aggregate household income (adjusted for 2015 inflation), Windgap and Allegheny Center sit at opposite ends of the spectrum — not because of what you might expect. Windgap, with an ID ranking of 91, towers over Allegheny Center at just 1, representing a 91x difference in their positional ranking within the dataset.
But here's where it gets interesting: Allegheny Center actually reports nearly $40 million in aggregate household income, while Windgap comes in at about $34.6 million. The ranking gap doesn't tell the full income story — it tells a geographic sorting story. Neighborhoods like Westwood ($91.8M) and Upper Lawrenceville ($65.7M) dominate the top, while smaller enclaves like West End ($3.6M) and Arlington Heights ($2.4M) cluster at the bottom.
What drives these gaps? Population size, housing density, and historical investment patterns all play a role. A neighborhood with fewer households will naturally report lower aggregate income — but that doesn't mean its residents are worse off per capita.
The takeaway: aggregate numbers can mislead. Always dig deeper before drawing conclusions about community wealth.
Source: High School Graduation Rate dataset, Data.gov
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