Childhood Neighborhoods Help Determine Future Earnings
A new study conducted by Douglas Massey of Princeton University and Jonathan Rothwell of the Brookings Institution has confirmed that the neighborhood in which an individual lives for the first 16 years of his or her life has a greater impact on future wealth than even the gap between high school and college graduates.
The men found that individuals who are raised in the wealthiest 20 percent of neighborhoods earn $900,000 more over their lifetimes than those in the poorest 20% of neighborhoods.
“Growing up in a poor neighborhood would wipe out much of the advantage of growing up in a wealthy household,” Rothwell adds, citing school districts in this neighborhoods as the determining factor.
Image via flickr/Loren Kerns