Blacks in Queens Make More Than Whites

Queens is the only large county in the nation where the median income of black residents has surpassed that of white residents, a newspaper analysis found.

The picture is quite different across the river in Manhattan, where the gap between whites and blacks is wider than in any other large county in the country, according to a New York Times analysis of Census data.

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In Queens, home to about 2 million people, black households reported a median income of $51,836 — higher than the $50,960 reported for non-Hispanic whites. Asians in the borough reported a median income of nearly $53,000, while Hispanics reported incomes of about $44,000.

Some residents pointed to the success of immigrants from the West Indies and elsewhere as one reason for the shift in the borough. The earnings of foreign-born blacks outpaced the income of blacks born in the United States.

An economist at New York University, Professor Edward Wolff, said the wealthiest whites may have left the city for the suburbs, shifting the income balance.