Household Income Percentile Calculator
Your household income
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Fill in the fields on the left and this updates as you type.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- General mathematical model
- Scope and limitations
- Educational estimate only. Confirm the assumptions, current rules, fees, and rounding that apply to your situation before making a decision.
- Source links checked
- Jul 30, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
How to use
- 01
Enter your household's income for a year before taxes, counting everyone in the household and every source.
- 02
Read your percentile: roughly the share of US households with less income than yours, from the Census Bureau's distribution of 2024 incomes.
- 03
Check which fifth of households you are in, the income that would reach the next fifth and how far you are from the top 5%.
- 04
If the income you entered is what you earn in 2026, read the stat at 2024 prices, which compares like with like.
- 05
Use the table of Census income limits to see the range of each fifth and of the top 5%.
Formula
Percentile = (households in all lower brackets + households in your bracket × (income − bracket floor) ÷ bracket width) ÷ all households × 100, using the Census HINC-06 counts for 2024 in $5,000 brackets up to $200,000 and a $200,000 to $249,999 bracket. From $250,000: percentile = the share below $250,000 + (95 − that share) × (income − $250,000) ÷ ($335,700 − $250,000). At or above $335,700, the published top-5% limit, the answer is top 5%. Share with more income = 100 − percentile. At 2024 prices = income × CPI-U 2024 average ÷ CPI-U August 2026 = income × 313.689 ÷ 334.980. Quintile and top-5% limits are the Census Bureau's published 2024 figures.
Example
A household earns $95,000 a year before taxes. Against the Census distribution of 2024 incomes it ranks at about the 55th percentile: roughly 45% of households, about 60.5 million, had more. It is in the middle fifth, between the limits of $65,100 and $105,500, and at 113% of the 2024 median of $83,730. Reaching the fourth fifth takes $105,500, $10,500 more; the top 5% starts at $335,700, $240,700 away. If the $95,000 is a 2026 income, at 2024 prices it is $88,962, about the 52nd percentile. As a check on the method, incomes of $34,510, $65,100, $105,500 and $175,700, the published limits, rank at the 20th, 40th, 60th and 80th percentiles, and $250,000 ranks at the 90th.
Definitions
- Percentile
- The share of households with lower income than yours. At the 55th percentile, about 55% of households have less and 45% have more.
- Quintile
- One of five groups of equal size, here each a fifth of all households ranked by income. The Census Bureau publishes the income limit between each pair.
- Top 5% limit
- The lowest household income in the top 5% of households: $335,700 in 2024.
- Money income
- The Census definition of income: cash income before taxes, including wages, self-employment income, Social Security, pensions, interest and dividends, but not capital gains or noncash benefits.
- Median household income
- The income of the household in the middle of the distribution: $83,730 in 2024.
Good to know
Where the household income distribution comes from
The rank on this page comes from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement, known as the CPS ASEC. Every year the Census Bureau asks a large national sample of households about their income in the previous calendar year and publishes the results each September. The latest figures available when this page was built describe 2024 incomes, collected in the 2025 supplement and released in the report Income in the United States: 2024, issued in September 2025. That report put the median household income at $83,730. The page uses two tables from the same survey. The first, table HINC-06, counts households by income in brackets: $5,000 wide up to $200,000, then $200,000 to $249,999, then $250,000 and over. In 2024 it counted about 134.8 million households. The second, table H-1, gives the income limits that divide households into five equal groups, and the lower limit of the top 5%. Income here has a specific meaning. The Census Bureau counts money income before taxes: wages and salaries, self-employment income, Social Security, pensions, unemployment benefits, interest, dividends and similar cash receipts. It does not count capital gains, the value of noncash benefits such as food assistance or employer health insurance, or tax credits received at filing. Your own figure should be measured the same way, which usually means the total of every household member's gross income, before any deductions, rather than take-home pay or the adjusted gross income on a tax return. A household here is everyone living in one housing unit, related or not, so roommates count as one household, and a grown child living at home adds to the household's income. The Census Bureau's report for 2025 incomes is due in September 2026, and when it is published the tables on this page should be replaced with the newer ones.
Quintiles, the top 5 percent, and the missing top 1 percent
The Census Bureau summarizes the income distribution by splitting households into five groups of equal size, called quintiles or fifths, and publishing the income limits between them. For 2024 the lowest fifth had household incomes under $34,510, the second fifth from $34,510 to $65,100, the middle fifth from $65,100 to $105,500, the fourth fifth from $105,500 to $175,700 and the highest fifth $175,700 and over. The Bureau also publishes the lower limit of the top 5% of households, which was $335,700. The page shows which fifth you are in and how far you are from the next limit. On the example, a household earning $95,000 is in the middle fifth, $10,500 below the $105,500 that begins the fourth fifth and $240,700 below the top-5% limit. The spacing of the limits says a good deal about the shape of the distribution. The second fifth spans $30,590, the middle fifth $40,400 and the fourth fifth $70,200, while the gap between the start of the highest fifth and the start of the top 5% is $160,000. Incomes spread out rapidly at the top. That spread is also why the page stops where it does. The Current Population Survey does not publish a limit for the top 1% of households, and its detailed table ends in an open bracket of $250,000 and over that holds about a tenth of all households, with no detail inside it. Any calculator that reports a top-1% household income from these tables is estimating beyond what the data contain. Figures for the top 1% that appear in the news generally come from tax return data, which measure income differently, include capital gains and describe tax filing units rather than households, so they cannot be mixed with the Census figures. At or above $335,700 this page says top 5% and goes no further.
How the page turns brackets into a percentile
The Census table tells how many households fall in each income bracket but not where each household sits inside it, so the page has to make an assumption. It assumes households are spread evenly across each bracket. To rank an income, it adds up all the households in lower brackets, adds the fraction of the current bracket that lies below the income, and divides by the total number of households. An income of $97,500, for instance, would count all households below $95,000 plus half of those between $95,000 and $99,999. This straight-line method is simple and, with brackets only $5,000 wide, quite accurate. The best test is to run it at incomes where the Census Bureau has published the answer. On the page, $34,510 ranks at the 20th percentile, $65,100 at the 40th, $105,500 at the 60th and $175,700 at the 80th, exactly where the published quintile limits say they should, once the percentile is rounded to a whole number. The underlying fractions differ from the published limits by less than a percentage point, which is why the page describes its answer as accurate to within about one point. Two brackets need special handling. The $200,000 to $249,999 bracket is ten times as wide as the others, so ranks within it are rougher. The final bracket, $250,000 and over, has no upper end, so the page uses a second published figure: it interpolates between the share of households below $250,000 and the 95th percentile at the published top-5% limit of $335,700. On the page, $250,000 ranks at the 90th percentile and $300,000 at the 93rd. Above $335,700 there is nothing further to anchor to, so the answer is simply top 5%. As with any survey, the underlying counts carry sampling error, and small differences in rank should not be over-read.
Ranking an income fairly: year, household size and wealth
A percentile is only as meaningful as the comparison behind it, and three things can make a raw rank misleading. The first is the year. The distribution on this page describes 2024 incomes, but a visitor in 2026 usually enters what they earn now, and incomes tend to rise with prices. Comparing a 2026 income with 2024 incomes flatters it. The page handles this with a second figure that converts the income to 2024 prices using CPI-U, from 334.980 in August 2026 back to the 2024 average of 313.689. On the example, $95,000 in 2026 is $88,962 in 2024 dollars, which ranks at about the 52nd percentile rather than the 55th. If the income you entered is already a 2024 figure, use the first rank; if it is a current one, the second is the fairer comparison. The second is household size. This page ranks total household income, so a single person earning $95,000 and a family of five earning $95,000 get the same percentile, even though the single person is far better off. The middle class income calculator adjusts for household size and local prices, following the Pew Research Center's method, and is the better tool for asking how comfortable an income is rather than how high it ranks. The third is wealth. Income and wealth are related but different, and a household's rank on one can be far from its rank on the other. Retirees often have low incomes and substantial assets, while young high earners may have high incomes and little saved, or large debts. The net worth by age calculator ranks the balance sheet rather than the paycheck. Read together, the three give a much fuller picture than any one of them. A percentile answers a narrow question well: out of every US household, how many had a larger income in a given year.
Frequently asked questions
What percentile is my household income?
Enter it and the page ranks it against every US household. On this page's example, a household income of $95,000 ranks at about the 55th percentile: roughly 45% of households, about 60.5 million, had more in 2024. It falls in the middle fifth, between the Census limits of $65,100 and $105,500.
What household income is in the top 5%?
In 2024, $335,700 or more, according to the Census Bureau's table of income limits for each fifth and the top 5% of households. An income at or above that limit is shown as top 5%, and the page does not rank it more finely.
What are the household income quintiles?
The Census Bureau divides households into five equal groups by income. For 2024 the lowest fifth had incomes under $34,510, the second fifth $34,510 to $65,100, the middle fifth $65,100 to $105,500, the fourth fifth $105,500 to $175,700, and the highest fifth $175,700 and over.
What household income is top 1%?
This page does not say, because the Census survey it uses does not publish a top-1% limit. The Current Population Survey's detailed table stops at an open bracket of $250,000 and over, and its highest published limit is the top 5%. Figures for the top 1% come from tax data and use a different definition of income.
What is the median household income in the US?
$83,730 in 2024, from the Census Bureau's Income in the United States: 2024, issued in September 2025. The example's $95,000 is 113% of it.
Should I compare my 2026 income with 2024 data?
Adjust it first. Incomes rise with prices, so a 2026 income ranks too high against 2024 figures. The page converts it with CPI-U: the example's $95,000 is $88,962 in 2024 dollars, which ranks at about the 52nd percentile rather than the 55th.
How accurate is the percentile?
Within about one percentile point. The Census table counts households in $5,000 brackets, and the page assumes they are spread evenly within each one. Tested at the published limits, the page puts $34,510 at the 20th percentile, $65,100 at the 40th, $105,500 at the 60th and $175,700 at the 80th, matching the Census figures.