This study augments and deepens the North Carolina income poverty report. Household income, which refers to “the sum of all cash income received by [an] individual and/or other family members,” is a crucial and pervasive measure of economic wellbeing. Wealth, however, represents the stock of assets and economic resources, accumulated or inherited, owned by such a household at a particular point in time. Wealth, of course, can replicate itself – producing further income and profit. It is a primary source for consumption and investment as well. It provides an essential cushion against tides of economic hardship and dislocation. And it fosters the transmission of financial stability and opportunity from one generation to the next. Wealth, no less than income, can be essential to economic security and possibility.
