NYCEDC

May
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Demographics of the Information EraNYCEDC

May 2012 Economic Snapshot: Demographics of the Information Era

The upcoming IPO of Facebook and its recent acquisition of Instagram have helped to increase focus on young entrepreneurs. Successful entrepreneurs in the Internet and information era tend to be very young—often not yet in their 30s, which contrasts from those of the industrial era. (For instance, Henry Ford was well into his 40s when he introduced the Model T in 1908, whereas Mark Zuckerberg was 19 years old when he launched Facebook.)

For our May 2012 Economic Snapshot, NYCEDC’s Research & Analysis team looked at the demographics of the information era and the increase in household income among the very young. While it is difficult to measure the number of entrepreneurs by age in the workforce, household income can be used as a proxy to gauge whether or not more people are becoming successful at a relatively young age. Did you know?

The share of all households in the nation under age 25 with income exceeding $100,000 has more than doubled—from 5% in 2000 to 11.8% in 2011.
These shares are considerably higher in areas with booming tech sectors like Manhattan and San Francisco, where more than 25% of all young households reported incomes greater than $100,000 in 2011. These shares were up from 18.6% and 20.9% in 2000, respectively.