Real median household income
$83,730
2024 dollars
Median income was statistically unchanged from 2023 and 2019.
Boundary Pretax money income; excludes in-kind transfers and uses a 2024 reference year.
The American Household Economy · 2026
Distribution
Distribution and hardship: real median household income, poverty, food insecurity, and net worth by age percentile — with the gap between mean and median and the lower-tail caveats spelled out.
Data as of
Income, poverty and hardship
Median income was statistically flat; poverty and food insecurity remained material. Young adults carried above-average payment stress.
Official poverty rate
10.6%
percent of people
35.9 million people were below the official poverty line.
Boundary Official measure omits taxes, in-kind transfers and geographic housing-cost differences.
Supplemental Poverty Measure rate
12.9%
percent of people
After-tax resources, transfers, housing and medical costs left roughly one in eight below the SPM threshold.
Boundary 2024 observation; methodology differs from the official poverty measure.
Food-insecure households
13.7%
percent of households
18.3 million households experienced food insecurity at some point in 2024.
Boundary Annual household measure; differs from SHED's one-month adult food-insufficiency measure.
Ages 18–29 receiving outside help with expenses
47%
percent of adults age 18–29
Family or social support is integral to many young-adult budgets.
Boundary Receipt of help does not imply insolvency.
Ages 18–29 not paying all bills in full
24%
percent of adults age 18–29
Young adults faced above-average payment stress.
Boundary Age is individual age; bills may reflect family circumstances.
Who holds the wealth
Quarterly distributional accounts bridge the lag between full wealth surveys. The aggregate is enormous; its ownership is not remotely even.
Households-only net worth
$174.010T
trillion dollars
Households alone held about $174 trillion in net assets.
Boundary Aggregate level; says nothing by itself about the median or lower half.
Top 1% share of household net worth
31.6%
percent of household net worth
Nearly one-third of household wealth belongs to the top one percent.
Boundary DFA estimate bridges surveys with quarterly aggregates; not direct household observation.
Bottom 50% net worth
$4.266T
trillion dollars
The entire bottom half held only a small fraction of household wealth.
Boundary Aggregate for a percentile group; positive total does not imply every household has positive wealth.
Bottom 50% share of household net worth
2.45%
percent of household net worth
Half of households collectively held about one-fortieth of wealth.
Boundary Calculated from DFA group levels; rounding makes the share approximate.
Money-income Gini coefficient
0.456
Gini coefficient
Money-income inequality remained high and ticked up from 2023.
Boundary Money income excludes taxes, in-kind benefits and wealth.
Net worth by age percentile
The 2022 SCF distribution in June 2026 dollars. The columns are percentiles within each age band, not a common pool.
Denominator: the 50th percentile within each five-year age band. In June 2026 dollars. This is the 2022 SCF distribution translated for inflation, not a newly observed 2026 balance sheet.
| Series | USD (median) |
|---|---|
| 18–24 | |
| 25–29 | |
| 30–34 | |
| 35–39 | |
| 40–44 | |
| 45–49 | |
| 50–54 | |
| 55–59 | |
| 60–64 | |
| 65–69 | |
| 70–74 | |
| 75–79 | |
| 80+ |
Latest SCF distribution translated to June 2026 purchasing power. Includes primary-residence equity. This is an inflation translation of the 2022 distribution, not a newly observed 2026 wealth survey or mark-to-market asset update.
| Age of reference person | P25 | Median | P75 | P90 | P95 | P99 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18–24 | $100 | $11,700 | $38,700 | $210,600 | $481,200 | $745,400 |
| 25–29 | $4,300 | $35,900 | $149,000 | $338,700 | $467,900 | $2,421,400 |
| 30–34 | $12,600 | $101,100 | $212,400 | $614,800 | $908,700 | $3,009,100 |
| 35–39 | $18,900 | $158,200 | $444,400 | $986,300 | $1,691,400 | $5,410,600 |
| 40–44 | $27,200 | $153,400 | $498,600 | $1,349,500 | $2,249,700 | $8,941,400 |
| 45–49 | $54,400 | $243,700 | $776,300 | $1,630,400 | $3,184,000 | $9,929,700 |
| 50–54 | $62,100 | $303,700 | $1,041,900 | $2,940,200 | $5,043,300 | $15,099,700 |
| 55–59 | $97,000 | $366,400 | $1,297,900 | $3,049,300 | $6,903,900 | $17,541,500 |
| 60–64 | $91,700 | $448,300 | $1,290,800 | $3,471,700 | $7,264,800 | $20,392,400 |
| 65–69 | $78,700 | $449,000 | $1,317,500 | $3,379,000 | $7,834,600 | $25,222,500 |
| 70–74 | $142,400 | $500,600 | $1,409,300 | $3,422,800 | $7,072,500 | $21,409,800 |
| 75–79 | $102,100 | $385,900 | $1,131,500 | $3,325,500 | $6,669,500 | $22,673,500 |
| 80+ | $108,700 | $373,400 | $1,077,600 | $2,899,100 | $6,232,200 | $18,520,700 |
Source lineage: dqydj.com · www.federalreserve.gov · www.bls.gov
Mean versus median
The median is the middle household; the mean is the average, and the average is pulled far upward by the very top of the distribution.
Take reference persons aged 60 to 64. The median net worth is $448,300, while the 99th percentile within that same band is $20,392,400 — roughly 45 times larger. A mean sits well above the median precisely because of that upper tail.
This is why “the average American has $X” claims mislead. The age-conditioned median and the 25th percentile describe the typical and the struggling household far more honestly than any average.