This dataset contains information derived from a nationally representative panel of deidentified, consumer-level records from a major credit bureau. The credit bureau data are from February and August 2021. The February credit records cover 5 million consumers, which is a 2 percent sample of all consumers. In August 2021, we doubled the sample size to 10 million consumers, which is a 4 percent sample of all consumers.

We also incorporated estimates from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). Where possible, we used ACS one-year estimates from 2019 (the most recent year of data), but for areas with smaller populations, we used ACS five-year estimates (2015–19).

This dataset also contains information imputed by machine learning models. We used the 2018 Survey of Income and Program Participation to train the machine learning models. Based on the models, we estimated the net worth and emergency savings for the 2019 one-year ACS.

We use the abbreviation AAPI for Asian American and Pacific Islander. We use the term "Hispanic" to refer to people of Hispanic or Latino origin to align with how the data were collected. We recognize this term may not be the preferred identifier for many, and we remain committed to using inclusive language whenever possible.

We define communities that are majority residents of color, AAPI, Black, Hispanic, or white as zip codes where more than 50 percent of the residents fall in those racial or ethnic groups. Data are not available when the sample size is too small or when a zip code does not have a majority (more than 50 percent) of residents in any racial or ethnic group. For more information about the data and our methodology, see our technical appendix.