What income puts a US household in the top 10% or the top 5%?

The short answer

$261,300 for the top 10%, $354,000 for the top 5%. Those are the 90th and 95th percentiles of US household income in 2025, published in table 6 of the Census Bureau’s annual income report, across 137.1 million households ranked by money income before taxes.

They are household figures. In Eco3min’s tabulation of the Census survey microdata (CPS ASEC 2026, covering 2025 income), 76.4% of households in the top 10% counted two or more earners, against 39.1% of all households. An earner is anyone with earnings during the year, however small.

The thresholds have also pulled away from the middle. In 2025 dollars, the 90th percentile stood at $118,400 in 1967 and has risen 120.7% since, against 55.5% for the median; the 95th percentile rose 136.6%.

→ Mean against median: why the mean sits above the median

What the data shows

Table 6 of the Census report gives selected percentiles of household income every year since 1967, in 2025 dollars, from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey (CPS ASEC). Money income counts earnings, Social Security, pensions, interest and dividends, before taxes; it leaves out capital gains and noncash benefits.

• Thresholds in 2025: $261,300 for the 90th percentile, $354,000 for the 95th, against a median of $87,460. The top fifth starts lower, at $182,400.
• The 90th percentile as a multiple of the median: 2.11 in 1967, 2.28 in 1979, 2.67 in 2000, 2.93 in 2019, 2.99 in 2025. For the 95th: from 2.66 to 4.05.
• The top 5% of households averaged $594,500 in 2025, well above the threshold that admits them.
• In 2022 the 90th percentile fell 5.4% in real terms and the 95th 4.3%, against 2.2% for the median.
• On tax returns rather than households, the IRS put the floor of the top 1% at an adjusted gross income of $675,602 for 2023 (Statistics of Income, table 4.1).

The Census tables stop at the 95th percentile. For the top 1%, the IRS series is the nearest official reference, on another unit (the tax return) and another income concept: adjusted gross income includes capital gains, which money income leaves out.

→ Any income, any year: rank any household income since 1967

Why the household thresholds run high

Individual pay and household income rank on different scales. Among people with earnings in 2025, the 90th percentile was about $150,000 (Eco3min calculation on the same microdata). A household living on one income of $130,650, half the household threshold, ranked around the 67th percentile of households.

More earners, unevenly weighted. Households in the top 10% averaged 2.05 earners and 3.18 members, against 1.25 and 2.40 for all households. The second earner often weighs little: in 48.0% of top-10% households the second-largest earnings reached at least a quarter of household earnings, against 28.2% of all households. Pooling matters, but genuine two-income households are about half of the group.

Middle of working life. Households headed by someone aged 35 to 64 made up 71.1% of the top 10%, against half of all households. Older and younger households are under-represented: 17.1% are headed by someone 65 or older (30.6% overall), 11.9% by someone under 35 (19.5%).

A wider distribution. The 90th percentile went from 2.11 to 2.99 times the median between 1967 and 2025, and the widening is not confined to that point, as the 95th percentile against the 20th shows. Part of it is measurement. The two Census method changes published on both bases, in 2013 and 2017, account for 0.069 of the 0.88-point rise in the multiple, about 8%; the 1993 switch to computer interviewing was not bridged, so 8% is a minimum.

By regime, the multiple rose by 0.39 during the long disinflation from 1979 to 2000, then by 0.26 from 2000 to 2019, method changes included. Recent shocks have moved it without a lasting break: 2.99 in 2021, 2.90 in 2022 as inflation peaked, 2.99 again in 2025 (Census, published ratios). Every percentile is deflated by the same price index, so the 2022 dip reflects slower nominal growth at the top, which the table does not break down; from 2021 to 2025 the 90th percentile and the median rose 4.8% and 5.0% in real terms. The duration of the move separates the regimes: decades of steady widening before 2019, a one-year swing undone within three years since.

The top-10% line is a household line, crossed mostly by households that count two earners or more.

→ Framework: financial decisions in everyday life

What it means for different economic actors

Households. A household’s rank depends on everyone under its roof. The same salary of $130,650 places a one-earner household around the 67th percentile and a couple earning it twice at the 90th.

Investors and analysts. In the Census definition, which leaves out capital gains, earnings make up 81.4% of top-10% household income, against 75.7% for all households. Measured this way the top decile’s income is mostly pay; realized gains, the part that moves with markets, appear only in the IRS series.

Public debate. Tax proposals aimed at high earners are written for tax returns, so a household’s rank in the Census table does not tell whether it falls under them.

A common error is to read the household threshold as the pay of a top-10% worker. On 2025 data the individual 90th percentile of earnings was about $150,000, the household one $261,300.

Practical observation

Go deeper

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Frequently asked questions

Is a household in the top 10% wealthy?

The Census thresholds measure one year of income, and no official statistic defines a household as rich. A household can cross $261,300 with two salaries and little savings, while a retired couple with large assets can report a modest money income, since capital gains are left out and the value of assets is not counted. The thresholds describe a position in one distribution, for one year.

How many top-10% households rely on two incomes?

Fewer than the earner count suggests. In the CPS ASEC 2026, which covers 2025 income, 76.4% of households above the 90th percentile counted two or more earners and only 4.2% had none, against 25.5% of all households. But the second earner brought at least a quarter of household earnings in 48.0% of them. The share is no higher in the top 5%, at 76.0% and 42.0%: above the 90th percentile, a second earner no longer sets households apart.

Is there an official top-1% threshold for households?

No. The Census tables stop at the 95th percentile. The nearest official figure is the IRS floor for the top 1% of tax returns, $675,602 of adjusted gross income in 2023. It ranks returns rather than households, includes capital gains and counts a married couple filing jointly once, so it cannot be read as the next step above the Census $354,000.

Last updated — 1 October 2026