American household income reaches all-time high of $87,460

The typical American household had an income of $87,460 in 2025, up 2.6 percent from $85,210 in 2024 after adjusting for inflation, the U.S. Census Bureau reported September 15. It is the highest median household income in records going back to 1967.

The previous high was in 2019, at $85,320 in 2025 dollars, so last year beat it by $2,140. The bureau measured inflation at 2.5 percent for the year, and the 2.6 percent gain is what was left after taking it out. In 1967 the median was $56,230 in 2025 dollars, so the typical household's income is up 55.5 percent since then.

Median means the middle: half of households had more income and half had less. The figures come from the Current Population Survey's Annual Social and Economic Supplement, which asks people each spring what they earned the year before. The report, Income in the United States: 2025, was written by Melissa Kollar and Zach Scherer.

The official number is above the $86,000 figure that former White House economic adviser Steve Moore cited in July, a claim we looked at here.

Black households had the largest gain of any race group, 4.8 percent, to $59,980. Median income rose 3.0 percent for White households, to $91,930, and 2.9 percent for non-Hispanic White households, to $96,710. Asian households had the highest median, $126,300, and Hispanic households were at $73,260, but the bureau said neither group's income changed significantly from 2024. It also said the differences among the groups' growth rates were not statistically significant.

By age of the householder, the biggest gains went to households headed by people 55 to 64, up 5.9 percent, and 35 to 44, up 5.1 percent. Households headed by someone 65 or older gained 3.1 percent, to $59,680, and still had the lowest median of any age group.

The South was the only region with a significant gain, 3.4 percent, to $80,690. It remains the lowest of the four. The West was highest at $97,440, followed by the Northeast at $95,110 and the Midwest at $85,820.

Households headed by someone with at least a bachelor's degree had a median of $138,300, about 3.7 times the $37,090 for those without a high school diploma. Married couples had a median of $132,400.

After federal and state income taxes, tax credits, and payroll taxes, the median household had $76,060, up 3.1 percent from $73,760. Taxes and credits left the typical household with 13.0 percent less than its pretax income.

The 90th percentile rose 1.7 percent

A household at the 90th percentile, richer than 90 percent of all households, had $261,300 in 2025, up 1.7 percent. At the 10th percentile, income was $20,010, which the bureau said was not a significant change. The 90th-percentile household had 13.06 times as much as the 10th, compared with 12.74 times in 2024, a difference the bureau did not find significant.

The Gini index, a 0-to-1 measure in which higher numbers mean more inequality, was 0.490, statistically unchanged. The top fifth of households received 52.4 percent of all household income and the bottom fifth received 3.0 percent. The top 5 percent alone took 23.5 percent. After taxes, the Gini index was 0.448, or 8.7 percent lower.

The bureau released its poverty report the same day, which put the official poverty rate at 10.2 percent.

Women's earnings rose 3.2 percent

Among people who worked full time all year, median earnings were $66,620, and for all workers, including part-time, $52,770. Neither changed significantly from 2024. Earnings made up 75.9 percent of all income people reported.

Women who worked full time, year-round had median earnings of $60,760, up 3.2 percent. Men's median, $72,380, did not change significantly. That raised the female-to-male earnings ratio to 83.9 percent from 80.6 percent. The bureau said it was the first significant annual increase in the ratio since 2016 and came after two years of significant declines. The ratio was 84.0 percent in 2022.

Median earnings fell for full-time, year-round workers ages 25 to 34 and for those with a high school diploma, some college, or a bachelor's degree or more. The bachelor's-degree median dropped 1.7 percent, to $92,170. More people worked full time all year: 70.7 percent of workers in 2025, up from 69.7 percent.

The bureau revised its 2024 figures for this report to reflect new population estimates, so some 2024 numbers differ from those published last year. State-level medians come from a different survey and are in our median household income by state breakdown.

Sources

Figures are from the U.S. Census Bureau report Income in the United States: 2025 (P60-289, September 2026) by Melissa Kollar and Zach Scherer, and its full PDF. Detailed figures are from Table 1 (income by characteristic), Table 3 (post-tax income), Table 5 (income distribution), and Table 11 (earnings). Dollar figures are in 2025 dollars, adjusted with the Chained Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. Changes are marked significant when the bureau's 90 percent confidence interval excludes zero. Details on the revised 2024 estimates are in a bureau working paper.