US household income distribution (income year 2024)
Educational use only: all data, calculations and results on this page are for education and general information. They are not financial, investment or tax advice and must not be used as the basis for financial decisions. See our full disclaimer.
Income ranks use US Census CPS ASEC data (income earned Jan–Dec 2024, gross, all sources); net-worth ranks use the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances (2022, household net worth).
Non-USD amounts convert at an editable market rate; the world rank is a rough per-adult PPP estimate from the World Inequality Database. Values between survey thresholds are interpolated.
US income benchmarks for 2026
All figures are gross (pre-tax) income earned January–December 2024, from the Census Bureau's September 2025 ASEC release — the data that powers the calculator above.
What is the median household income?
Median US household income is $83,592 ($83,730 in the official Census publication). The average is $120,952 — pulled up by top earners, it sits near the 65th percentile.
What is the median individual income?
The median individual worker earned $53,010; the average was $77,652. For people who typically work full-time (40+ hours), the median runs to roughly $65,000 — a common bar for a "good" income.
What income is top 10%?
The top 10% starts at $251,036 for households and $155,042 for individual workers.
What income is top 5%?
The top 5% starts at $335,575 for households and $210,351 for individual workers.
What income is top 1%?
The top 1% starts at $659,060 for households and $450,100 for individual workers — both up roughly 4–5% from the prior survey.
How many people make $100,000 or more?
About 23% of individual workers — roughly 42 million people — earned six figures, and about 43% of households (≈58 million) crossed $100,000. A quarter-million-dollar income puts an individual in roughly the top 3.6% (≈6.6 million workers), and a seven-figure income in about the top 0.35%.
Income percentiles: the full ladder
Every threshold is the entry price of that percentile — earn more and you're above it. Treat the last digits as survey noise, not precision.
| Percentile | Household income | Individual income |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $19,889 | $11,005 |
| 25th | $41,401 | $30,000 |
| 50th (median) | $83,592 | $53,010 |
| 75th | $153,000 | $93,400 |
| 90th | $251,036 | $155,042 |
| 95th | $335,575 | $210,351 |
| 99th (top 1%) | $659,060 | $450,100 |
Source: US Census Bureau CPS ASEC (Sep 2025 release, income year 2024), harmonized by IPUMS-CPS v13.0. Gross, pre-tax income.
Notice how the ladder steepens: 50th → 75th household percentile takes about $69,000 more income; 95th → 99th takes over $323,000. Income inequality lives almost entirely in that last staircase.
Median household income, 2015–2024
US median household income by year (nominal USD)
Official Census Bureau medians, current dollars, income year shown
Sources: US Census Bureau, Income in the United States reports (P60 series), 2015–2024. The red bar marks 2020's pandemic dip. Note: 2021–2023 raises were largely eaten by inflation; real median income only clearly broke out again in 2023–2024.
What counts as middle class in 2026
The most common research definition — half to double the median household income — puts the middle class between $41,796 and $167,184 a year. That's a deliberately wide tent: it covers a single teacher and a two-lawyer household.
Why every source quotes a different "median income"
Google "median US income" and you'll meet numbers from $43,000 to $84,000 — all technically correct. They measure different things:
- Census ASEC household median — $83,730 official / $83,592 harmonized. All income types, whole households. We use the harmonized IPUMS series because it powers the full percentile curve.
- Census ASEC individual median — $53,010. Same survey, per worker rather than per household.
- Social Security wage statistics — roughly $43,000 (2023, latest available). Wages only, per worker; ignores investment and most self-employment income, so it runs lowest.
- BLS weekly earnings — annualized near $62,000. Full-time wage workers only; excludes part-timers, the self-employed and investment income.
The pattern: the more income types and the bigger the earning unit, the higher the number. When a headline median looks shocking, the definition — not the economy — usually explains it.
Your percentile is a snapshot. Compounding is the trend.
Income ranks reset every January; invested money keeps climbing the ladder for you. See what history says with our what-if calculator, then check bull, base & bear scenarios for the S&P 500, gold and Bitcoin.
Open the forecast hubMethodology & data sources
Percentile thresholds come from the US Census Bureau's Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC), released September 2025 and covering income earned January–December 2024: 55,762 household records (≈135 million households) and 75,234 worker records (≈183 million workers), harmonized by the University of Minnesota's IPUMS-CPS project (v13.0).
Income is gross (pre-tax) and includes wages, self-employment, investment and other income. The by-year chart uses official Census P60-series medians in current dollars.
Net-worth mode uses household net worth percentiles from the Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances (median $192,084; top 1% $13.67M).
Non-US countries are modeled: we fit a log-normal income distribution per adult to each country’s approximate mean income (World Bank GNI per capita, market USD, scaled to a per-adult pre-tax basis) and Gini index — a standard approximation whose thresholds are estimates, not survey values.
Currency conversion uses approximate market rates (July 2026) that you can edit in the tool; the optional world rank divides income by adults in the household and places it on the World Inequality Database’s global per-adult distribution (PPP) — treat it as a rough estimate.
The calculator interpolates linearly between the 99 published percentile thresholds — between-threshold values are estimates, and survey top-coding means top-1% figures are conservative.
"People you out-earn" multiplies your percentile by the survey's population weights. Estimates, not advice: see our disclaimer.
Sources: US Census Bureau, "Income in the United States: 2024" (P60-286, Sep 2025) · IPUMS-CPS v13.0, University of Minnesota · DQYDJ percentile tabulations of ASEC microdata (2025 edition) · SSA wage statistics (2023) · BLS usual weekly earnings.
FAQ
Should I use household or individual income?
Use individual to compare just your own earnings against other workers. Household thresholds run much higher because many households have two earners: median $83,592 vs $53,010.
Is the calculator based on gross or after-tax income?
What is a middle-class income in the US?
How accurate is an income percentile calculator?
The calculator interpolates between the 99 published percentile points, so between-threshold results are close estimates rather than exact ranks, and survey top-coding makes top-1% figures conservative.