A recent announcement by the city council indicated that on average residents in Edinburgh have the highest level of disposable income of any city in the U.K.

This, amongst other positive economic indicators including low unemployment and high levels of foreign investment.

No doubt of course that the Edinburgh economy is strong and its diversity has allowed it to weather many storms (unlike say, Aberdeen?) but do these numbers actually mean we’re better off?

We’ve taken one metric – average disposable income – and measured it against inflation over the period 1997-2015 (currently published figures) to see if we are indeed getting more prosperous in the city.

Granted its one metric and so we must be wary to read to much into these results however they do make for interesting reading in the interactive charts here: https://public.tableau.com/profile/cameron.mchattie#!/vizhome/Edinburgh-DisposableIncome1997-2012/Story1