In my earlier post, I graphed 8 different income series from 4 different sources. To follow up I am looking at the base unit of each income series: Tax Unit, Household, and Family:
I started by plotted them all on one graph. {Click on the graph to take a closer look}
A couple issues with this data that I noticed: there is a jump in the Census population in 2000 due do the fact that I had to piece together two series from the Census: Census Historical Series and Census Current Estimates . Also Income Tax Returns were not required from most people before WWII so that is why there is a dramatic increase at that time.
After finishing the Population graph, I plotted a some ratios: number of people and number of employed people per tax unit, household, and family
You can see the effect of the post-WWII baby boom, increase of two-income households, and decrease in family size over the past decades. Of course these changes should be taken into account when looking at income statistics since the change in income over time will be affected by changes in the base unit of the income series.
Data sources for the employment data can be founds at Bureau of Labor Statistics
Addendum:
9/25/2006 A helpful reader pointed out a problem with the Population Ratio graph. The household graph was labeled family. So I fixed that. Also dividing the # number of people by # of families does not give a useful ratio since singles are not counted in families. So I removed that graph.
10/7/06 As an experiment I copied the data used in these two graphs into a Google spreadsheet which can be viewed by anyone with a Google Account. Try it!
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