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    The American Dream Is Harder To Find In Some Neighborhoods

    A new data tool finds a strong correlation between where people grew up and their chances of climbing the economic ladder. Charlotte, N.C., hopes to use it to improve residents' economic mobility.
    by John Ydstie Oct 01, 2018 4 minutes
    This map, a screenshot from <a href="http://www.opportunityatlas.org/">The Opportunity Atlas</a>, shows household income in 2014-2015 for people born between 1978 and 1983 to low-income parents. In areas that are more red, people who grew up in low-income households tended to stay low-income. In areas that are more blue, people who grew up in low-income households tend to make more money.

    Does the neighborhood you grow up in determine how far you move up the economic ladder?

    A new online data tool being made public Monday finds a strong correlation between where people are raised and their chances of achieving the American dream.

    Harvard University economist Raj Chetty has been working with a team of researchers on this tool — the first of its kind because it marries U.S. Census Bureau data with data from the Internal Revenue Service. And the findings are changing how researchers think about economic mobility.

    It used to be that people born in the 1940s or '50s were virtually guaranteed to achieve the American dream of earning more than your

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