A map of Census tracts in the DC area with median household incomes above the national median household income, color-coded by race. High and medium-income Census tracts in the Washington area, color-coded by racial makeup. by the author.

I’ve previously discussed Prince George’s County’s exceptional diversity, but that article didn’t discuss just how unique one aspect of Prince George’s County is: the county contains more than half of the majority Black high-income Census tracts in the United States.

Anecdotally, Prince George’s County has long been known as a symbol of Black wealth. The county was one of the few in the US that got wealthier as its Black population grew, from 14% of the population in the 1970s to more than 60% today. Its neighborhoods often make lists of the country’s richest Black communities.

So, how unique is Prince George’s County?

Almost all high and median-income Census tracts are majority white

While economic class boundaries can be slippery in the US, the Pew Research Center suggests that “middle-income” households can be defined as those making between two-thirds and twice median household income, with “high-income” households and “low-income” households defined as those outside this range.

Using this definition and the US’s 2018 median household income of $63,000, there were 7094 Census tracts in the US with a high median income. Of these, 6351 — almost 90% — were majority white. Only 49 high-income tracts were majority Black.

Even middle-income census tracts, which make up the vast majority of tracts in the US, are largely white, with 84% of those tracts containing majority white populations (only about 60% of Americans identify as white and not Hispanic or Latinx, according to the Census). Only 5% of middle-income tracts are majority Black.

While Black and Latinx households in the US do have lower average incomes than white households, that is not the whole story behind these numbers. Middle and high-income nonwhite households are much more likely to live in majority white areas than their white counterparts are to live in areas predominated by people of color.

Two thirds of Black people who live in high-income tracts live in places that are less than 20% Black. For Latinx residents of high-income tracts, the numbers are similar: 78% live in tracts that are less than 20% Latinx. The difference is less extreme for middle-income tracts, but still present: only 30% of Black people in middle-income tracts live in tracts that are majority Black, and 38% of Latinx people in middle-income tracts live in tracts that are majority Latinx.

Majority-Black middle-income Census tracts are only clustered in a few major cities.

Just under half of the country’s 2731 Black middle-income Census tracts are found in just seven metro areas: New York (466 tracts), Chicago (196 tracts), Washington (190 tracts), Atlanta (166 tracts), Philadelphia (117 tracts), Baltimore (112 tracts), and Detroit (94 tracts). Middle-income tracts with populations that are at least 80% Black are even more clustered: more than two-thirds of them are found in these seven metro areas, with half in just the top four: New York, Chicago, Washington, and Atlanta. The remaining majority Black middle-income Census tracts are mostly found in the South, and particularly in cities and rural areas in the Black Belt region.

Animated map of Census tracts in the New York, Chicago, Washington, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Detroit areas with median household incomes above the national median household income, color-coded by race. Image by the author.

The animation above shows Census tracts in these seven metro areas with median household incomes above the national median household income of $63,000 color-coded by race. While several of the metro areas have relatively large contiguous areas with middle-to-high median household incomes and Black-majority populations, the band that stretches through Prince George’s County into Charles County is particularly large and contiguous. It is also noteworthy that most of the rest of Prince George’s County and much of the bordering portion of Montgomery County have no racial majority, something that is quite rare in the other metro areas shown.

Looking at high-income Census tracts makes Prince George’s County’s uniqueness even more evident

While majority Black, median-income Census tracts are relatively rare, high-income ones are much more so. There are only 49 such tracts in the US, and 36 of them are found in the Washington area (29 in Prince George’s County alone). Six are found in the New York metro area, two each are found in the Philadelphia and Baltimore metro areas, and the Los Angeles, Chicago, and Detroit metro areas each have one.

A map of Census tracts in the Washington area with median household incomes above twice the national median household income, color-coded by race. Image by the author.

The band of high-income, majority Black Census tracts in Prince George’s County stretches from Glenn Dale south to Waldorf, and is largely located east and south of the Beltway and west of US Route 301.

A map of Census tracts in the New York area with median household incomes above twice the national median household income, color-coded by race. Image by the author.

The six high-income, majority Black Census tracts in New York, in contrast, do not form a contiguous belt: four are located in eastern Queens, one in western Nassau County on Long Island, and one on the outskirts of Newark.

The Washington region’s high median household income plays a role

The fact that the Washington region has the second highest median household income of any metro area in the country — $119,000, second only to San Jose — undoubtedly plays a role in the disproportionate number of majority Black, high-income Census tracts in our region. Because the cut-off I used for high-income Census tracts is $126,000, census tracts with median incomes just 106% of the Washington region’s median household income qualify as high-income.

There are 364 majority Black Census tracts in the US that have a median household income of at least 106% of their county or metropolitan area’s median household income. Of these, 37 are in the Washington region and 29 are in Prince George’s County; only the New York metropolitan area (61 tracts) has more than Washington, and only Queens County, New York has as many as Prince George’s County.

Animated map of Census tracts in the New York,  Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, and Atlanta areas with median household incomes above 106% of the metro area median household income, color-coded by race. Image by the author.

As with majority Black, middle-income Census tracts, these tracts are fairly clustered, with half of them found in only seven metropolitan areas: New York (61 tracts), Washington (37 tracts, Los Angeles (19 tracts), Chicago (18 tracts), Detroit (15 tracts), Memphis (14 tracts), and Atlanta (14 tracts). Many of the remaining tracts are scattered throughout small metro areas and rural counties in the South, and some have quite low median incomes in national terms: 43 of the tracts have median incomes of less than $50,000.

Of the seven metro areas that contain most of these tracts, only the Washington area has a large, contiguous area of them. Prince George’s County’s large, continuous stretch of high-income, majority Black areas really is unique.

DW Rowlands is a human geographer and Prince George’s County native, currently living in College Park.  More of her writing on transportation-related and other topics can be found on her website.