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Compared to Gen X, millennials see modest income increases in Hamilton County, outpacing national rate

Staff photo by Robin Rudd / The morning breaks over downtown Chattanooga in 2023 in this view down Chestnut Street. Low-income millennials in Hamilton County have seen modest wage increases compared to the previous generation.
Staff photo by Robin Rudd / The morning breaks over downtown Chattanooga in 2023 in this view down Chestnut Street. Low-income millennials in Hamilton County have seen modest wage increases compared to the previous generation. Staff photo by Robin Rudd / The morning breaks over downtown Chattanooga in 2023 in this view down Chestnut Street. Low-income millennials in Hamilton County have seen modest wage increases compared to the previous generation.

Among low-income households in Hamilton County, those headed by millennials saw a modest increase from the prior age cohort, Generation X, outpacing the nationwide rate among those same groups.

According to a recent analysis from The Opportunity Atlas – a group of researchers at the U.S. Census Bureau and Harvard University – those born in low-income households in Hamilton County in 1992 had a household income 1.1% higher than those born in similar families by income in 1978.

Both age cohorts, at age 27, were at a household income around $27,000, adjusted for inflation based on 2023 currency values.

According to the study’s methodology, income levels among the two groups are tracked at that age because that is the earliest “at which reliable estimates of adult incomes can be measured.”

According to the research, the nation as a whole saw a 4.2% drop among the same groups.