Household Income Percentile Calculator
Your household income
Your result will appear here
Fill in the fields and this updates as you type.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- United States — the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI series, and the federal programs indexed to it
- Rules and time period
- CPI-based results depend on the index series and the release the calculator uses. BLS publishes a new CPI every month and revises seasonal factors annually, so a figure can move after publication.
- Scope and limitations
- Educational estimate only. A national index is an average of a basket that is not yours: your own inflation depends on what you actually buy and where. Index choice — CPI-U, a regional series, a category series — changes the answer, and a projection forward assumes a rate nobody can promise.
- Source links checked
- Sep 19, 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 2025 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 2025 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 = the percentile at the published point below your income + (the percentile at the point above − the percentile below) × (income − the income below) ÷ (the income above − the income below). The published points for 2025 are $15,000 at the 6.9th percentile, then $20,010 at the 10th, $35,800 at the 20th, $51,330 at the 30th, $68,600 at the 40th, $87,460 at the 50th, $110,300 at the 60th, $140,900 at the 70th, $182,400 at the 80th, $261,300 at the 90th and $354,000 at the 95th; below $15,000 the line runs down to zero. At or above $354,000, the published top-5% limit, the answer is top 5%. Share with more income = 100 − percentile. At 2025 prices = income × CPI-U 2025 average ÷ CPI-U August 2026 = income × 321.943 ÷ 334.980. Quintile limits are the published 20th, 40th, 60th and 80th percentiles.
Example
A household earns $95,000 a year before taxes. Against the Census distribution of 2025 incomes it ranks at about the 53rd percentile: roughly 47% of households, about 64.0 million, had more. It is in the middle fifth, between the limits of $68,600 and $110,300, and at 109% of the 2025 median of $87,460. Reaching the fourth fifth takes $110,300, $15,300 more; the top 5% starts at $354,000, $259,000 away. If the $95,000 is a 2026 income, at 2025 prices it is $91,303, about the 52nd percentile. As a check on the method, incomes of $35,800, $68,600, $110,300 and $182,400, the published limits, rank at the 20th, 40th, 60th and 80th percentiles, and $250,000 ranks at the 89th.
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: $354,000 in 2025.
- 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: $87,460 in 2025.
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 figures here describe 2025 incomes, collected in the 2026 supplement and released on September 15, 2026 in the report Income in the United States: 2025, report number P60-289, written by Melissa Kollar and Zach Scherer. It put the median household income at $87,460, with a margin of error of about $1,040, and counted 137.1 million households. The page uses two tables from that report. The first, table 6, prints household income at the 10th, 20th, 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th, 70th, 80th, 90th and 95th percentiles, which is both the ladder the page ranks against and the source of the quintile limits. The second, table 2, gives the number of households and the share in each broad income band, of which the page uses only the 6.9% under $15,000, to anchor the bottom of the ladder. 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. One caution when comparing this report with an older one: it restated the 2024 estimates using newer population controls, so its 2024 median is not the $83,730 the September 2025 edition published.
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. Those limits are the 20th, 40th, 60th and 80th percentiles of household income. For 2025 the lowest fifth had household incomes under $35,800, the second fifth from $35,800 to $68,600, the middle fifth from $68,600 to $110,300, the fourth fifth from $110,300 to $182,400 and the highest fifth $182,400 and over. The Bureau also publishes the 95th percentile, the lower limit of the top 5% of households, which was $354,000. 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, $15,300 below the $110,300 that begins the fourth fifth and $259,000 below the top-5% limit. The spacing of the limits says a good deal about the shape of the distribution. The second fifth spans $32,800, the middle fifth $41,700 and the fourth fifth $72,100, while the gap between the start of the highest fifth and the start of the top 5% is $171,600. Incomes spread out rapidly at the top. That spread is also why the page stops where it does. The Current Population Survey publishes nothing above the 95th percentile, so it gives no limit for the top 1% of households. 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 $354,000 this page says top 5% and goes no further.
How the page turns published percentiles into a rank
The Census Bureau does not publish the income of every household, only a ladder of points on the distribution, so the page has to fill in the gaps. Its ladder for 2025 runs $15,000 at the 6.9th percentile, $20,010 at the 10th, $35,800 at the 20th, $51,330 at the 30th, $68,600 at the 40th, $87,460 at the 50th, $110,300 at the 60th, $140,900 at the 70th, $182,400 at the 80th, $261,300 at the 90th and $354,000 at the 95th. To rank an income the page finds the two published points it falls between and draws a straight line from one to the other. An income of $99,000, for instance, sits between $87,460 at the 50th and $110,300 at the 60th, half of the way along, and so ranks at about the 55th. Below $15,000 the line runs down to zero. The method has one useful property: at every published point it returns that point exactly, so $35,800 is the 20th percentile, $68,600 the 40th, $110,300 the 60th and $182,400 the 80th, and the median $87,460 is the 50th. Only the incomes between the published points are estimated, which is why the page describes its answer as accurate to within about one percentile point. Accuracy is best in the middle, where the published points are close together, and weakest at the two ends, where they are far apart: $250,000 ranks at the 89th percentile and $300,000 at the 92nd, interpolated across the wide stretches from $182,400 to $261,300 and from $261,300 to $354,000. Above $354,000 there is nothing further to anchor to, so the answer is simply top 5%. As with any survey, the underlying estimates carry sampling error, the median's own margin of error is about $1,040, 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 2025 incomes, the newest the Census Bureau has published, but a visitor in 2026 usually enters what they earn now, and incomes tend to rise with prices. Comparing a 2026 income with 2025 incomes flatters it, though by much less than a two-year gap would. The page handles this with a second figure that converts the income to 2025 prices using CPI-U, from 334.980 in August 2026 back to the 2025 average of 321.943. On the example, $95,000 in 2026 is $91,303 in 2025 dollars, which ranks at about the 52nd percentile rather than the 53rd. If the income you entered is already a 2025 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 53rd percentile: roughly 47% of households, about 64.0 million, had more in 2025. It falls in the middle fifth, between the Census limits of $68,600 and $110,300.
What household income is in the top 5%?
In 2025, $354,000 or more. That is the 95th percentile of household income in the Census Bureau's report Income in the United States: 2025, and it is the highest point the survey publishes. An income at or above it 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 2025 the lowest fifth had incomes under $35,800, the second fifth $35,800 to $68,600, the middle fifth $68,600 to $110,300, the fourth fifth $110,300 to $182,400, and the highest fifth $182,400 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% figure. The Current Population Survey stops at the 95th percentile, the point where the top 5% begins. 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?
$87,460 in 2025, from the Census Bureau's Income in the United States: 2025, report P60-289, issued in September 2026. The example's $95,000 is 109% of it.
Should I compare my 2026 income with 2025 data?
Adjust it first. Incomes rise with prices, so a 2026 income ranks a little too high against 2025 figures. The page converts it with CPI-U: the example's $95,000 is $91,303 in 2025 dollars, which ranks at about the 52nd percentile rather than the 53rd.