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Income distribution
Wealth distribution
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Select the primary economic measure you want to explore.
Income distribution
Wealth distribution
What decile of income am I in?
These data come from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and use a fairly comprehensive definition of income. They are also equivalized to household size. This can make it difficult to determine what decile you are in, but we provide guidelines for a rough estimate here. Total the wage income, income received from owning a business, income received from interest or dividends, and income received as government transfers in cash (such as Supplemental Security Income) for all members of your household and compare to the below categories. These cutpoints come from the 2024 Current Population Survey.
1st decile up to about $19,000
2nd decile $19,000 to $33,000
3rd decile $33,000 to $48,000
4th decile $48,000 to $62,000
5th decile $62,000 to $80,000
6th decile $80,000 to $101,000
7th decile $101,000 to $127,000
8th decile $127,000 to $165,000
9th decile $165,000 to $235,000
10th decile $235,000 and up
Top 1% $631,000 and up
What are the components of income?
Wage income is income earned from an employer. It includes employer contributions for retirement and insurance, as well as employer contributions for government social insurance. Employers pay 6.2 percent of an employee's earnings for Social Security and 1.45 percent of an employee's earnings for Medicaid.
Transfer income is income households receive as transfers from the government or from nonprofit institutions. The BEA definition of transfers is expansive and includes transfers-in-kind such as SNAP benefits and Medicaid. Households that receive Medicaid, for example, are assigned income equal to the government's per capita cost of providing Medicaid (about $7,000 in 2021). We subtract payments made to the federal government to fund transfers, which is why this part of income can sometimes be negative.
Asset income consists of interest and dividend income earned from the ownership of stocks, bank deposits, or other assets. It does not include increases in value of the asset itself. For example, if you own a stock that pays dividends, those dividends are part of your income in this definition, but appreciation in the value of the stock is not. That appreciation is known as capital gains and is not part of the BEA definition of personal income.
Business income consists of income earned by the proprietor of a private business. This income is net of inventory and capital depreciation.
Rental income consists of income earned by a household for renting out their property. This income is net of depreciation of the property.
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What wealth group am I in?

It can be difficult to determine your wealth percentile because calculating wealth involves aggregating several different types of assets. You can roughly estimate it by totaling the value of your car, your equity in your house if you are a homeowner (value of your house less your remaining mortgage), the value of any retirement accounts you have, the value of any stocks you hold that are not in a retirement account, and the value of your equity in a private business. If you own especially valuable consumer durables, such as fine art or jewelry, you should add those as well. These values are from the Distributional Financial Accounts and reflect 2022 data.

Bottom 50 percent up to $242,000
Upper 40 percent $242,000 to $2.15 million
Top 10 percent $2.15 million and up
Top 1 percent $11.2 million and up
Top 0.1 percent $46.3 million and up
What are the components of wealth?
Real estate includes the value of any properties the household owns. For the vast majority of households, this is the value of their house. We subtract the value of a household's mortgage, a liability, from this value to reflect the equity of homeownership.
Consumer durables are lasting purchases made by households such as their car, furniture, and appliances.
Equities consist primarily of corporate equities (commonly known as stocks) and mutual fund holdings.
Pension wealth is the accumulated value of both defined-benefit pensions (pensions that guarantee a monthly income) and defined-contribution pensions (such as 401ks).
Business wealth is the value of noncorporate equity in a business for sole proprietors and partners in a partnership.
Other assets is total assets minus the five asset categories and includes relatively small categories of wealth such as bank deposits and loans owed to households.
Other liabilities includes a few different types of liabilities, the largest of which by far is consumer credit, or credit card debt.
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Evolution of real income
Composition of income
Annual income growth
Share of income

Evolution of Real Income

Households in the to percentile of the income distribution
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Data
Wages
Transfers less transfer payments
Assets
Business
Rent
Total
U.S. recessions

The group you selected, households in the to percentile of the income distribution, saw their incomes increase by percent between and . That's the percent growth experienced by the entire distribution in this time period.

The largest contributor to income growth in this group was income. The second most important growth category for this group was income.

It's important to note that the definition of income used here, Personal Income, does not include some categories of income. Most notably, it excludes capital gains, which is an important source of income for the high-earners.

Composition of Income

Households in the to percentile of the income distribution
Image
Data
Wages
Transfers less transfer payments
Assets
Business
Rent

To put the first graph in context, this one shows the composition of income for your group over time. Because transfers received less transfer payments made can be negative, this graph will not always be bounded by 0 percent and 100 percent, but positive and negative components will always sum to 100 percent.

income rose by percentage points as a share of this group's income, the largest increase for this group between and .

income declined in importance for this group over the same period, falling by percentage points.

Real Annual Personal Income Growth vs GDP

Households in the to percentile of the income distribution
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Data
to percentile households grew faster
GDP grew faster
U.S. recessions

Gross Domestic Product is a separate income concept from Personal Income that is frequently used to describe growth in the overall economy. Here, we compare it to Personal Income growth for households in the to percentile.

GDP grew at a compound annual rate of percent. For to percentile households the compound annual growth rate was percent.

Real Annual Personal Income Growth vs Other Households

Households in the to percentile of the income distribution
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Data
to percentile households grew faster
All households grew faster
U.S. recessions

This figure compares Personal Income growth for all households to growth for households in the to percentile

The compound annual rate of growth for all households was percent over this time span. For to percentile households the compound annual growth rate was percent.

Share of Income

Households in the to percentile of the income distribution
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Data
U.S. recessions

You can see how the pattern in the previous graph ultimately impacts your group's share of income relative to other groups in this graph, which tracks the fraction of all income earned by to percentile households in each year.

The share of personal income earned by your group between and from percent to percent.

Evolution of real wealth
Composition of wealth
Annual wealth growth
Share of wealth

Evolution of Real Wealth

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Data
Real estate less mortgage
Durables
Equities
Pension
Business
Other assets
Other liabilities
Total
U.S. recessions

The group you selected, , saw their wealth increase by percent between and . That's the percent growth experienced by the entire distribution in this time period.

The largest contributor to wealth growth in this group was wealth. The second most important growth category for this group was wealth.

Composition of Wealth

Image
Data
Real estate less mortgage
Durables
Equities
Pension
Business
Other assets
Other liabilities

To put the first graph in context, this one shows the composition of wealth for your group over time. Because real estate wealth can be negative and other liabilities are always negative, this graph will not always be bounded by 0 percent and 100 percent, but positive and negative components will always sum to 100 percent.

wealth rose by percentage points as a share of this group's wealth, the largest increase for this group between and

wealth declined in importance for this group over the same period, falling by percentage points.

Real Annual Wealth Growth vs Other Households

Image
Data
households grew faster
All households grew faster
U.S. recessions

The compound annual growth rate for all households was percent over this time span. The compound annual growth rate for households was percent.

Share of wealth

Image
Data
U.S. recessions

You can see how the pattern in the previous graph ultimately impacts your group's share of wealth relative to other groups in this graph, which tracks the fraction of all wealth earned by .

The share of all wealth controlled by your group between and from percent to percent.