Are Middle-Class Incomes Rising? What the Census Data Actually Shows

A claim about middle-class incomes has been circulating, and it comes with a specific number attached. Speaking to The National News Desk, former White House economic adviser Steve Moore said newly analyzed Census Bureau figures show household incomes rising after inflation, and put the typical American household at a higher level than most published statistics do.

"The median household income in the United States is now $86,000," Moore said. "In most countries, to have $86,000 would be considered to be very rich. It just shows we live in an affluent society." He attributed the figures to his organization, saying, "This is official Census Bureau data that our group, Unleash Prosperity, has gotten access to." Moore also said that adjusting for inflation, households in the exact middle have seen "about a $3,000 increase in their after-inflation income" since the start of President Donald Trump's second term, adding that "three thousand bucks is significant no matter who you are."

So what do the published Census numbers actually say? The answer is more interesting than a simple yes or no, because there is more than one official median household income, and they do not agree with each other.

The published figure is about $82,000

By the American Community Survey, the Census Bureau's largest and most widely used income source, the national median household income is $82,259. That is the figure behind the numbers on this site, and it sits roughly $3,700 below the $86,000 cited in the interview.

The spread underneath that national number is enormous. A typical household earns $103,960 in Massachusetts and $56,447 in Mississippi, a difference of more than $47,000 for the same statistic. We laid out all fifty states in median household income by state, and the county-level gaps are wider still.

Why there is more than one official number

Three ordinary differences explain most of the gap between competing income figures, and none of them require anyone to be wrong.

• Different surveys. The Census Bureau publishes household income from both the American Community Survey and the Current Population Survey. They ask different samples in different ways, and the CPS figure has historically run higher than the ACS figure. Citing one against the other produces an apples-to-oranges gap of thousands of dollars.
• Different time windows. The ACS publishes both a 1-year estimate and a 5-year average. The 5-year version blends the last half decade, so during a period of rising wages it necessarily reads lower than the most recent single year.
• Nominal versus real. A nominal figure counts the dollars; a real figure adjusts them for inflation. During years of elevated prices, nominal income can rise smartly while purchasing power stalls. Any claim about whether families are actually better off has to be the real one.

The timing problem with 2025 claims

There is one more thing worth knowing before judging any assertion about very recent income trends. The Census Bureau's annual household income statistics are released on a lag, in the fall, for the previous calendar year. As of this writing, the most recent published annual income data covers 2024. Figures for calendar year 2025 have not been released yet.

That means a claim about income growth during 2025 cannot be checked against published Census annual income tables, because those tables do not exist yet. It may well rest on a private analysis, a different or preliminary dataset, or monthly earnings data rather than the annual household series. Moore described the data as something his group "has gotten access to," which is not the same as a public Census release that anyone can open and verify. That does not make the claim false. It does mean it is not yet independently checkable, which is a meaningful distinction when a specific dollar figure is being quoted.

How to check income data yourself

The useful habit with any income statistic is to ask three questions: which survey, which year, and adjusted for inflation or not. Answer those and most apparent contradictions dissolve.

You can see the current national picture, including median household income and how it has moved, on our U.S. overview, compare every state in median household income by state or the full income ranking, and drill into the county extremes in the highest and lowest income counties. For how the underlying survey works, see what the American Community Survey is, and for how we compute what we publish, our methodology page.

Sources

Quotes are from Steve Moore's interview with The National News Desk, as published by CBS12. Published income figures are from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, and the Bureau's income statistics program is documented at census.gov. This article addresses only the income-data portion of that interview.