What is an income percentile?
Your income percentile is the share of people, or households, who earn less than you. At the 70th percentile, you out-earn 70% of the group and 30% earn more. The 50th percentile is the median, the income right in the middle.
The Income Percentile Calculator answers "where do I rank?" for the United States. Type one annual dollar amount, choose whether to compare against all US households or against individual full-time workers, and it returns your percentile, how you compare with the median, and the dollar gap to the next milestone. Household ranks use US Census Bureau figures for income year 2025, published in September 2026. Individual ranks use Bureau of Labor Statistics earnings from the second quarter of 2026. Every reference point the calculator uses is listed under each result.
A percentile beats an average for this question. A small number of very high incomes drag the average up, so the mean US household income sits well above the $87,460 median, and most households earn less than the "average" household. The percentile tells you where you actually stand in the line.
How to use the calculator
- Type your annual income before tax. Use the gross figure from a pay stub, W-2 or 1099, not take-home pay.
- Choose All US households to compare a household's combined income, or Individual full-time workers to compare one person's pay.
- Read the percentile rank and the line under it, such as "Top 25% — solidly upper-middle."
- Check the comparison box: the median for your group, your income as a percent of it, how far you are above the last milestone and how much more it takes to reach the next one.
Worked example. A household earning $100,000 lands at the 55.5th percentile, just above the middle. That's 114% of the $87,460 median. It sits $12,540 above the median and needs $10,300 more to reach the 60th percentile, which is $110,300. Switch the same $100,000 to Individual full-time workers and it jumps to the 75.1st percentile: top 25%.
Household or individual: which one should you pick?
They answer different questions, and the same number lands in very different places.
Household adds up the income of everyone living in the home: two salaries, a teenager's summer job, a grandparent's Social Security. Use it for "how is our family doing?" It's also the number news headlines quote as "median household income."
Individual full-time workers compares one person's pay against wage and salary workers aged 16 and over who usually work 35 hours a week or more. Use it for "is my salary good?" or "is this job offer competitive?" Part-time workers aren't in this group, so it's a tougher comparison than "all earners."
| Annual income | Percentile vs. all households | Percentile vs. full-time workers |
|---|---|---|
| $40,000 | 22.6 | 19.2 |
| $50,000 | 28.7 | 32.0 |
| $75,000 | 43.4 | 57.2 |
| $100,000 | 55.5 | 75.1 |
| $150,000 | 71.0 | 89.4 |
| $200,000 | 82.2 | 94.5 |
| $300,000 | 92.1 | 97.7 |
Every figure above is the calculator's own output. From about $45,000 up, the same income ranks higher as a salary than as a household, because many households have two earners. $75,000 is below the median household but a top-43% salary. Below $45,000 the order flips. The household group includes retirees and part-time workers, while the full-time group starts higher: its 10th percentile is $33,384.
Married or living together? Enter your combined income against households. Comparing your own paycheck? Enter just yours against individuals.
Where the numbers come from
The two groups come from two agencies, because no single source publishes both.
Households: US Census Bureau. The report Income in the United States: 2025 (P60-289) gives the 10th, 50th and 90th percentiles. The Bureau's historical household table (H-1) adds the 20th, 40th, 60th, 80th and 95th. Those eight points are all the calculator uses for households.
Full-time workers: Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Census Bureau publishes only the median for full-time, year-round workers ($66,620 in 2025), not the rest of the spread. The BLS publishes weekly earnings at the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles every quarter. The calculator multiplies those by 52. The BLS median comes to $65,052 a year, within 2.5% of the Census figure, so the two sources agree on the middle.
| Percentile | All US households (2025) | Full-time workers (Q2 2026, ×52) |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $20,010 | $33,384 |
| 20th | $35,800 | — |
| 25th | — | $44,200 |
| 40th | $68,600 | — |
| 50th (median) | $87,460 | $65,052 |
| 60th | $110,300 | — |
| 75th | — | $99,580 |
| 80th | $182,400 | — |
| 90th | $261,300 | $152,048 |
| 95th | $354,000 | — |
A dash means the agency doesn't publish that point, so the calculator doesn't invent one. To compare an older salary or an old offer letter in today's dollars first, the inflation calculator brings it forward using the Consumer Price Index.
How the percentile is worked out
Between two published points, the Income Percentile Calculator draws a straight line. Take the $100,000 household again. It sits between the median ($87,460) and the 60th percentile ($110,300). It's $12,540 into a $22,840 gap, which is 54.9% of the way. So the percentile is 50 + 5.49 = 55.5.
Two ends need special handling:
- Below the 10th percentile, the calculator scales down in a straight line to zero. $10,000 of household income shows as the 5.0th percentile.
- Above the top published point, it switches to a curve. That's the 95th percentile ($354,000) for households and the 90th ($152,048) for full-time workers. Top incomes thin out in a well-known pattern called a Pareto tail, and the calculator fits that curve to its own top two points. Nothing is tuned by hand.
Here's what the curve gives for households: $500,000 is the 97.7th percentile, about $716,000 is the 99th, and $1 million is the 99.5th. Around $2 million the display stops at ">99.9%" and "Top 0.1%," because one decimal place can't show anything finer. For full-time workers, $200,000 is the 94.5th percentile and $1 million is the 99.8th. Read everything above the top published point as an estimate. A Pareto curve fits top incomes well, but no agency publishes these exact points.
Want to run the same idea on your own data, like test scores or a team's salaries? The percentile calculator finds the percentile rank of any value in a list you paste in.
Why your percentile might feel wrong
It's pre-tax. Both sources count income before income tax and payroll tax. Two households at the same gross income can take home very different amounts depending on their state and their deductions. The paycheck tax calculator shows what's left after tax.
It's national. $100,000 goes much further in rural Mississippi than in San Francisco, but the tables don't adjust for cost of living. A 55th-percentile household in an expensive city can feel like it's scraping by.
It ignores household size. A single person and a family of five at $90,000 rank the same, even though their lives look nothing alike.
It ignores age. Earnings usually rise through your 30s and 40s. A 26-year-old at the 60th percentile is doing better, relative to people their age, than the number suggests.
The worker table leaves some people out. The BLS figures cover wage and salary workers. Self-employed people aren't in them, and neither is anyone working under 35 hours a week. Bonuses paid once a year may not show up in usual weekly earnings either.
Income isn't wealth. A retired couple living on savings can have a low income and a high net worth. If that's your question, the net worth calculator is the better tool.
Capital gains aren't counted. Census money income includes wages, Social Security, pensions, interest and dividends, but not profits from selling stock or property. If a big part of your income is capital gains, your real rank is higher than the calculator shows.
Frequently asked questions
Is $100,000 a good income in the US?
For a household, $100,000 is the 55.5th percentile, a little above the $87,460 median. For one full-time worker, it's the 75.1st percentile, top 25%. As a single salary it's well above the middle. As a whole household's income it's just past it.
What income puts you in the top 10%?
$261,300 for a household, from the Census Bureau's 2025 figures. For one full-time worker, $152,048 a year, from BLS earnings in the second quarter of 2026.
What percentile is $50,000?
For a household, the 28.7th percentile. For one full-time worker, the 32.0th. Both are below the middle, but by less than many people expect for a single salary.
What income puts you in the top 1%?
For households, the Income Percentile Calculator's curve puts the 99th percentile at about $716,000. That's an estimate, because the Census Bureau's published points stop at the 95th. The IRS publishes a different line from tax returns: $675,602 of adjusted gross income for tax year 2023. That's per tax return, not per household, and it includes capital gains.
Should I include Social Security, pensions or a side job?
For the household comparison, yes. Census money income counts wages, self-employment income, Social Security, pensions, interest, dividends, rent and unemployment benefits. It leaves out capital gains and non-cash benefits like food assistance or employer health insurance. Add up the cash income and enter the total. For the full-time worker comparison, enter only your pay from your job.
Can I compare by state, city or age?
No. The calculator compares against the whole country, all ages together. Keep that in mind if you live somewhere with much higher or lower incomes than the national picture, or if you're early or late in your career.
Does it work for income outside the US?
No. The tables are US-only and in US dollars. Converting a salary from another country and typing it in would rank it against American households, which tells you little about where you stand at home.