- What income puts you in the top 1% in the US?
- About $650,000 in annual household income, per the US Census Bureau's ASEC for income year 2022. For individual full-time workers, the 99th percentile threshold is closer to $400,000. The IRS reports a different (higher) top-1% threshold — around $785,000 of adjusted gross income — because IRS data includes capital gains and dividends that the Census 'money income' definition partly excludes. The numbers move every year with inflation and the stock market.
- What's the US median household income?
- $74,580, per the Census Bureau's 2022 income year data (published September 2023). The median means exactly half of US households earn less and half earn more — it's the most-cited 'typical' income figure because the average ($105,500) is pulled up by the top of the distribution. A household earning the median is at the 50th percentile by definition.
- Is this individual or household income?
- Both — pick the one that matches your question. 'Household' counts everyone under one roof and is the right denominator for 'how is my family doing?' questions. 'Individual' uses full-time, year-round worker earnings and is the right denominator for 'how is my salary doing?' questions. A $120k earner is at the 70th percentile against households (because households often have two earners) but at roughly the 80th percentile against individual workers (because the individual-worker median is lower).
- Where does the data come from?
- US Census Bureau, Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC), Report P60-279 — 'Income in the United States: 2022', published September 2023. Household figures come from Table HINC-01; individual full-time figures from PINC-10. These are the same tables the US Census Bureau itself uses when it publishes the annual 'median household income' headline number — no third-party data, no proprietary modeling.
- Why does the IRS report a different top-1% number?
- Two different income definitions. The Census Bureau counts 'money income' — wages, Social Security, pensions, interest, dividends, but NOT realized capital gains and NOT employer-provided benefits. The IRS counts adjusted gross income, which includes realized capital gains (often huge in good market years) and excludes most non-taxable transfers. For most households the two figures are close; for the top of the distribution, capital gains push the IRS top-1% threshold $100k-$150k higher than the Census equivalent. Both are correct; they answer different questions.
- Is the percentile pre-tax or post-tax?
- Pre-tax. Census 'money income' is before federal income tax, FICA, state tax, or any deductions. If you want to compare post-tax incomes the percentile shifts noticeably for high earners (a 35% marginal rate compresses the top of the distribution). For consistent comparisons against published thresholds, use the gross figure on your W-2 or 1099 — the calculator expects gross.
- Why does the calculator stop at the 99th percentile?
- The Census Bureau's public anchor tables go to the 95th and report a top-tail summary statistic for the 99th but don't break out the 99.9th, 99.99th, etc. Above the 99th, income is roughly Pareto-distributed (a power law), so we use a log-scale extension to estimate values above the top published anchor — meaningful in shape but not precise to the dollar. If your income is north of $1M and you want a precise rank, the IRS's Statistics of Income (SOI) division publishes more granular high-income tables.
- How is this different from average income?
- Percentile (and median) are robust to the extreme tail; average is not. The 2022 mean US household income was $105,500 — significantly higher than the $74,580 median — because the few households earning eight or nine figures drag the average up. 'Above average' sounds like a meaningful threshold but isn't: roughly two-thirds of US households earn below the mean. Percentile rank tells you the more honest answer to 'where do I stand?'
- Are these inflation-adjusted?
- The numbers shown are in 2022 dollars — nominal at the time of the data collection. For a 2026 comparison, add roughly 12-15% to account for cumulative inflation since 2022 (CPI-U). The Census Bureau will publish updated tables every September for the prior year; this calculator's numbers will be updated when the next ASEC report drops with newer figures.
- Does this account for cost of living differences?
- No. The tables are national. $100k in rural Mississippi has materially different purchasing power than $100k in Manhattan or San Francisco, but the Census Bureau publishes the income figures unadjusted for regional cost-of-living differences. If you want a cost-of-living-adjusted comparison, the Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes Regional Price Parities you can use to deflate your income before plugging it in here — for example, divide a New York metro income by ~1.22 to get a rough national equivalent.
