# Methodology and data notes

As-of date: 2026-07-26

This feed is derived deterministically from the site's canonical
sources by `scripts/export_data.py`. It is the same data the site
renders; nothing is hand-edited downstream.

## Files in this directory

- `metrics.json` / `metrics.csv` — the indicator ledger.
- `networth_age.json` / `networth_age.csv` — the age x percentile
  net-worth distribution.
- `methodology.md` — this note.
- `manifest.sha256` — SHA-256 checksums for every file above.

## Reading the indicator ledger

There are 83 indicators spanning these categories: debt, distribution, hardship, households, housing, liquidity, macro, prices, work.

Every indicator carries five discipline fields:

- `period` — the observation window the number describes.
- `released` — when the issuing agency published it.
- `freshness` — how current the series is relative to today.
- `interpretation` — what the number supports.
- `boundary` — what the number does not establish.

A 2026 publication about a 2025 or 2024 observation is labeled by
its observation year, never by its publication year.

## Reading the net-worth distribution

Survey vintage: 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances.
Price vintage: June 2026 CPI-U.

This is an inflation translation of the 2022 distribution, not a newly observed 2026 wealth survey or mark-to-market asset update.

Calculation: Reddit/DQYDJ 2025-dollar table multiplied by 1.051231 and rounded to the nearest $100. This equals an approximate 1.1411 uplift from the 2022 annual CPI-U base.

Net worth includes primary-residence equity. It is a structural
distribution translated into current dollars, not a newly observed
2026 balance-sheet survey and not a mark-to-market asset revaluation.

## Concepts kept distinct

- Observation versus interpretation versus evidence boundary.
- Survey reference year versus publication year.
- Person versus household versus primary economic unit.
- Stock (a balance at a point in time) versus flow (a transition rate).
- Nominal versus real (inflation-adjusted) values.
- Mean versus median; the mean is not the typical household.

## Corrections

Series are revised by their issuing agencies. When a figure here is
superseded or found to be in error, the canonical data file is
corrected, this feed is regenerated, and the manifest hash changes.