Last week the Census Bureau released its annual report on household income data for 2016. Last year the median (middle) household income rose to $59,149, a 4.1% increase over 2015 and a record high. The median income adjusted for inflation is also at a record high, above the peak of $58,882 set in 2000. The mean (average) household income set a new high of $83,143. More about that in another commentary. Meanwhile, let’s take a closer look at the quintile averages, which dates from 1967, along with the statistics for the top 5%.
Most people think in nominal terms, so the first chart below illustrates the current dollar values for the six cohorts across the 50-year period (in other words, the value of a dollar at the time received – not adjusted for inflation). What we see are the nominal growth patterns over the complete data series. In addition to the five quintiles, the Census Bureau publishes the income for the top five percent of households. We’ve included a table to document the impressive year-over-year growth in 2016 for all six cohorts.
This post was published at FinancialSense on 09/20/2017.
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