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Sep 12, 2023 · These tables present data on income, earnings, income inequality & poverty in the United States based on information collected in the 2023 and earlier CPS ASEC. Table Income in the United States: 2021
- Data Tables
Each year the Census Bureau updates its income inequality...
- Visualizations
This report presents data on income, earnings, & income...
- Data Tools
Income Inequality Data Tools. Interactive applications,...
- About
Census Bureau statistics on income can shed some light on...
- Publications
Income and Poverty in the United States: 2016 This report...
- Wealth and Asset Ownership
Household net worth, or wealth, is an important part of...
- Data Tables
- Katherine Schaeffer
- Over the past 50 years, the highest-earning 20% of U.S. households have steadily brought in a larger share of the country’s total income. In 2018, households in the top fifth of earners (with incomes of $130,001 or more that year) brought in 52% of all U.S. income, more than the lower four-fifths combined, according to Census Bureau data.
- Income inequality in the U.S. is the highest of all the G7 nations, according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. To compare income inequality across countries, the OECD uses the Gini coefficient, a commonly used measure ranging from 0, or perfect equality, to 1, or complete inequality.
- The black-white income gap in the U.S. has persisted over time. The difference in median household incomes between white and black Americans has grown from about $23,800 in 1970 to roughly $33,000 in 2018 (as measured in 2018 dollars).
- Overall, 61% of Americans say there is too much economic inequality in the country today, but views differ by political party and household income level.
- Household Incomes Are Growing Again After A Lengthy Period of Stagnation
- Upper-Income Households Have Seen More Rapid Growth in Income in Recent Decades
- Income Growth Has Been Most Rapid For The Top 5% of Families
- The Richest Are Getting Richer Faster
With periodic interruptions due to business cycle peaks and troughs, the incomes of American households overall have trended up since 1970. In 2018, the median income of U.S. households stood at $74,600.5 This was 49% higher than its level in 1970, when the median income was $50,200.6(Incomes are expressed in 2018 dollars.) But the overall trend ma...
The growth in income in recent decades has tilted to upper-income households. At the same time, the U.S. middle class, which once comprised the clear majority of Americans, is shrinking. Thus, a greater share of the nation’s aggregate income is now going to upper-income households and the share going to middle- and lower-income households is fallin...
Even among higher-income families, the growth in income has favored those at the top. Since 1980, incomes have increased faster for the most affluent families – those in the top 5% – than for families in the income strata below them. This disparity in outcomes is less pronounced in the wake of the Great Recession but shows no signs of reversing. Fr...
The richest families in the U.S. have experienced greater gains in wealth than other families in recent decades, a trend that reinforces the growing concentration of financial resources at the top. The tilt to the top was most acute in the period from 1998 to 2007. In that period, the median net worth of the richest 5% of U.S. families increased fr...
Sep 13, 2022 · Written by: Jessica Semega and Melissa Kollar. Real median U.S. household income was $70,784 in 2021, statistically unchanged from the previous year, although income inequality increased for the first time since 2011, according to today’s U.S. Census Bureau release of the Income in the United States: 2021 report.
Income inequality refers to the extent to which income is distributed in an uneven manner among a population. Over the past four decades, the richest 1 percent of Americans have enjoyed by far the fastest income growth. The most rapid increase has occurred at the tippy top of the economic ladder.
Highlights. Income: Median household income was $67,521 in 2020, a decrease of 2.9 percent from the 2019 median of $69,560 (Figure 1 and Table A-1). This is the first statistically significant decline in median household income since 2011.
Apr 20, 2022 · According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office [PDF], income inequality in the United States has been rising for decades, with the incomes of the highest echelon of earners...
