Workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher had a median income that was about 280 percent more than those who didn’t finish high school. In 2021, 91.1 percent of American adults ages 25 and older had completed high school, an increase of 0.2 percent from 2020, according to the Census Bureau. Only 37.9 percent of adults over 25 years old had a college degree in 2021, up 0.2 percent from the previous year.

So if there are five people in the house who earn $15,000, $35,000, $54,000, $65,000, and $79,000, the median household income is $54,000. The Census Bureau counts households with no income in its calculation when it determines median household income in the United States. However, some other income analyses, particularly ones focusing on various average income statistics, use only positive income amounts.

Brazil – Economic Growth and Development

Research shows that the average household income has risen since 1970. The largest increases are in households in upper-income brackets. The calculator takes your household income and adjusts it for the size of your household. The income is revised upward for households that are below average in size and downward for those of above average size. This way, each household’s income is made equivalent to the income of a three-person household (the whole number nearest to the average size of a U.S. household, which was 2.5 in 2018).

But this compensation does not influence the information we publish, or the reviews that you see on this site. We do not include the universe of companies or financial offers that may be available to you. Furthermore, the Census Bureau includes financial assistance provided to a household by anyone who doesn’t live there, household income means such as a friend or family member. These rules encompass virtually all sources of income, earned and unearned, but some qualifying rules do apply to a few of them. It breaks down like this for the most common programs, but other programs might have their own rules, particularly for more obscure sources of income.

Median income by age

For instance, households with a lower income are more likely to default than those with higher earnings. When we analyze household-level data that combines different types of households, we must take into account changing household structures. Shifts in the number of household earners can significantly impact median household statistics, and failure to take this into account can create a distorted picture of income distribution. While it may be true that not everyone has gained since 1999, we must note that there are a myriad of factors that determine median household income, and the picture created by this data is not as simple as it seems. The second part of our calculator asks you more questions about your education, age, race or ethnicity, and marital status. This allows you to see how other adults who are similar to you demographically are distributed across lower-, middle- and upper-income tiers in the U.S. overall.

The U.S. Census Bureau includes any individuals age 15 or older, regardless of whether they’re related. Household income includes what each of them earns, even if they don’t use their money to support the household. This might be the case with a 17-year-old who works a part-time job and uses the income purely for their own enjoyment. Median household income, on the other hand, is the number that falls in the middle of all incomes.

What was the United States average household income?

We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. And while our site doesn’t feature every company or financial product available on the market, we’re proud that the guidance we offer, the information we provide and the tools we create are objective, independent, straightforward — and free. Full-time working women have gained some ground toward earning an equal wage over time, but a significant gap between what men and women earn remains. A Bankrate survey from January 2022 showed that only about 4 in 10 Americans had enough savings to cover a surprise expense of $1,000. The lack of a stable emergency fund has persisted for most Americans into 2022, with a more recent survey finding that 58 percent of Americans are concerned about how much they have in their emergency savings.

• This figure can also help lenders determine the potential risk of lending to a potential borrower.
• Household income is defined as the total gross income before taxes, received within a 12-month period by all members of a household above a specified age.
• A household in a metropolitan area with a higher-than-average cost of living or one with four or more people needs more than $48,500 to be included in the middle-income tier.

Federal and state policy makers, as well as community planners often use statistics on median household income as indicators of current economic conditions within communities. Median household income estimates are frequently used to identify communities and the number of households eligible for various government programs. By city, median household income is highest in Dublin, California, at $205,219, according to 2021 U.S. Income often correlates with an area’s cost of living for housing, taxes, transportation and more. A city that’s expensive to live in typically has a high median income, and vice versa. Asian households had the highest median income, $101,418, according to the Census Bureau.

U.S. household income by age, gender, education and more

In this post, find the estimated United States household income brackets for 2022. See average, median, and top 1% household income in the United States. The threshold to be in the top 10% of household incomes in 2022 in the United States was $212,110. In 2022, average household income in the United States was $102,310.10. Having some college education increased median income by almost a third (27.7 percent) to $64,378.