Monthly Household Income by Quartiles in the U.S.

Motio Research is now providing monthly U.S. household income estimates by income quartiles!

Previously, the firm had been presenting their monthly index for median household income based on data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau, which represents the 50th percentile in the distribution of total money income earned by U.S. households. But now they’ve expanded to capture the quartile thresholds of that distribution, introducing indexes for the 25th and 75th percentiles as well. The additional data provides more detail about how the incomes of different households within the U.S. are changing over time.

The following chart presents Motio Research’s nominal household income estimates for the U.S. income distribution’s quartile thresholds from January 2010 through June 2024:

• 25th percentile, representing the threshold where 25% of households earn less than the amount indicated and 75% earn more.
• 50th percentile, which is better known as the median, where 50% of households earn less than the indicated income and 50% earn more.
• 75th percentile, which represents the threshold where 75% of households earn less than the indicated income and 25% earn more.

Here’s the chart:

We’ve opted to present Motio Research’s nominal household income estimates because of their value for economic historians. This data matches up with the real world incomes that real American households at these percentiles would actually have seen as their regular, pre-tax income (not including any welfare payments or income from capital gains) in the months covered by the chart, which will also match up with figures reported in contemporary sources. Since the household income data was collected in each of those months by the U.S. Census Bureau as part of its Current Population Survey, here’s a quick summary of what that includes and what it does not include:

Census money income is defined as income received on a regular basis (exclusive of certain money receipts such as capital gains) before payments for personal income taxes, social security, union dues, medicare deductions, etc. Therefore, money income does not reflect the fact that some families receive part of their income in the form of noncash benefits, such as food stamps, health benefits, subsidized housing, and goods produced and consumed on the farm.

If you’re interested in inflation-adjusted figures, Motio Research’s regular data presentation for these household income quartiles does adjust the figures for inflation and also makes seasonal adjustments. If that’s the kind of income information you’re after, please follow the various links we’ve provided in this article.

References

Motio Research. Monthly Series of U.S. Household Income Data: Real Median Household Index (12 July 2024) and Introducing the 25th and 75th Percentiles Household Income (18 July 2024).

Image Credit: A group of coins photo by Allison Saeng on Unsplash.