Income percentiles in United States
Where each yearly income band starts in United States, in USD, and what a reading there measures.
Reference data version 2026.4, reference year 2024.
Three cut-offs
- Bottom tenth
- under $23,000 a year
- Top tenth
- from $160,000 a year
- Top hundredth
- from $370,000 a year
The middle of the distribution, the 40th to 55th percentile, is $51,000 – $68,000 a year.
Every band
The 11 bands the income question offers in United States, verbatim, lowest first.
| Band | Yearly income |
|---|---|
| Below the 10th percentile | under $23,000 |
| 10th to 25th percentile | $23,000 – $36,000 |
| 25th to 40th percentile | $36,000 – $51,000 |
| 40th to 55th percentile | $51,000 – $68,000 |
| 55th to 70th percentile | $68,000 – $92,000 |
| 70th to 80th percentile | $92,000 – $120,000 |
| 80th to 90th percentile | $120,000 – $160,000 |
| 90th to 95th percentile | $160,000 – $210,000 |
| 95th to 98th percentile | $210,000 – $290,000 |
| 98th to 99th percentile | $290,000 – $370,000 |
| Top 1% | $370,000 or more |
Per earner. The source publishes household income divided by everyone in the household; the labels multiply it by 2.03, the people one worker's income stands for in United States, so a person can place their own income.
What the data rests on
- Confidence
- Medium
- Years covered
- 1981 to 2024
- Survey-based years
- 100% of covered years
- Nearest survey
- in 2024 itself
- Age bands
- 6 of 6 resolved by the OECD
- Measured on
- income
- Currency
- USD ($)
Why: the span is short of the longest horizon.
What a reading in United States measures
- Your place: which of the bands above your income is in now, against the band it was in a year ago, read as a position in the income distribution of United States itself.
- Your ground: both incomes with consumer prices in United States taken out, against how the middle of the distribution moved over the same year.
- Nothing is compared across borders. A reading in United States is measured against United States alone.
A band is a range, so a move inside one band does not register, and published distributions understate the very top. The confidence level above travels onto every card measured here.