What 28,538 American Cities Quietly Teach Us About Sustainable Growth
- Jun 7
- 3 min read
By Thomas Rewwer
Founder of AmericaByNumbers.com
Most advice on financial growth sounds either inspirational or intimidating. The U.S. data tells a calmer, more useful story — one where confidence comes from understanding what's actually possible, not from pretending you have to do everything at once.
I run AmericaByNumbers, a data project sitting on Census ACS records for 28,538 U.S. places and Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data for 830 occupations across all 50 states. When you stare at numbers that big, three patterns about sustainable growth keep showing up.
1. Geography is the most underused growth strategy
A Software Developer earns a median of $170,910 in California, but $86,460 in Mississippi. Same skill, same job code — a 1.98× spread by state. Across all 50 states, the median Software Developer earns roughly $121,000.
Most people optimize their resume before they ever look at a map. The data says the opposite: where you operate often moves your income more than the next certification will. That's not a relocation pitch — it's a remote-rate negotiation, a cost-of-living arbitrage, a permission slip to charge what your skill is worth in the highest-paying market that will hire you. Confidence here doesn't come from a mantra. It comes from a number.
2. The "skill ladder" is real, and it's measurable
The ten highest-paying occupations in BLS data right now are dominated by health care and senior management. Nurse Anesthetists clear a median of $209,205. Pediatricians sit near $200,109. Architectural and Engineering Managers are at $159,404, Financial Managers at $144,016, Marketing Managers at $140,396.
You don't have to become a Nurse Anesthetist. The point is the gradient: every step from a Cashier ($30,510 median) to a Customer Service Representative ($42,347) to a Carpenter ($57,517) to an Accountant ($79,712) to a Registered Nurse ($90,458) is a real, measurable jump. Sustainable growth isn't a leap — it's the next visible rung. When the rungs are this clearly priced, "I'll figure it out later" stops being a strategy. Pick the next rung. Move.
3. Confidence compounds where ownership compounds
Across our 28,538 places, the average homeownership rate is 72.8%. The range goes from near-zero in transient micro-communities to nearly 100% in established suburbs. In majority-Black suburbs like Bowie, Maryland (57% Black, 86.1% homeownership, median home value $419,200) and Missouri City, Texas (40% Black, 80.1% homeownership), residents have built equity in places nobody profiled them as "supposed" to win in. That's the pattern: confidence isn't loud. It's the quiet accumulation of a paid-down asset, year after year.
What action without overthinking actually looks like
The same college data tells the same story from the other end: average 10-year earnings across the 5,080 institutions with reported earnings data is $43,824 — but the top end (MIT, Harvey Mudd, specialized health-sciences schools) approaches $143,000. A 3.3× gap. Some of that is selection. Most of it is direction.
Sustainable financial growth, as the U.S. data describes it, is boring on purpose. Pick a rung. Pick a market. Buy something that compounds. Repeat. The economy rewards women — and everyone — who make one small, defensible move per quarter, not heroic leaps once a decade.
The numbers are public. The hesitation is optional.
Sources & methodology (for your fact-checker)
Salary figures: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2024 release — state-level median annual wages. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
City-level homeownership, home values, and household income: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates, 2019–2023. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs
College earnings (10-year median post-enrollment): U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, latest release. https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/
"$170,910 California / $86,460 Mississippi" reflects state-level median annual wage for SOC 15-1252 (Software Developers).
"72.8% average homeownership" is the unweighted mean of city-level ownership rates across 28,538 places in our database; treat as community-level, not population-weighted.
Full data tables and city-level cuts available on request.
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