RAND California Median Incomes include median family income estimates (MFI's) established by The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for U.S. counties and metropolitan areas. Please note that counties are generally aggregated into metropolitan areas and data reported reflect metropolitan area median income, not that for a member county. For example, in the case of California, income data reported for San Mateo County reflects San Francisco metropolitan area (San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo counties) median income, not that for an individual county.
Median income estimates are based on decennial Census data, Census Current Population Surveys (CPS), American Community Surveys (ACS) for changes to state-level income, and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data for county-level changes to wages.
HUD is requred by law to set income limits that determine the eligibility of applicants for HUD's assisted housing programs and uses the Section 8 program's Fair Market Rent (FMR) area definitions.
In addition to median incomes are low income estimates divided into three categories:
Notes:
The source for these data is The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).