Estimating the Income of the January 6, 2021 Insurrectionists

The income of those who attacked the U.S. Congress on January 6, 2021 and were subsequently arrested is estimated using the income in the neighborhood of their residence as a proxy measure. Contrary to common wisdom, we find that the income of the arrestees deviated markedly from that of the population at large. Two groups were conspicuously underrepresented from this subset of the insurrectionists: the poor (whose estimated annual per capita income was below $20K), and those who earned more than $50K per annum. Fully 83% of the arrestees resided in areas with an average annual per capita income between $20K and $50K. This finding dovetails with the argument that the right-wing populist movement is driven largely by the struggling lower-middle class who have been left behind by the transition from an industrial to a knowledge economy.