Median household income rose to a record $87,460 in 2025: what the Census report shows

On September 15, 2026, the U.S. Census Bureau published its annual report "Income in the United States: 2025" (P60-289), which measures what households across the United States received in the previous calendar year. Real median household income was $87,460 in 2025, up 2.6% from $85,210 in 2024 and the highest on record in data going back to 1967. The median is the midpoint: half of all households had more income, and half had less.

The report came out the same day as companion reports on poverty and health insurance. The official poverty rate dropped to 10.2% in 2025, down 0.5 percentage points, and 34.5 million people were in poverty, the bureau said. Some 26.7 million people, or 7.9%, had no health insurance for the whole year, a share not statistically different from 2024.

What the figure measures

The estimates come from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement to the Current Population Survey, a survey sponsored jointly by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The supplement is conducted in February, March and April and asks about income in the year before. The headline measure is money income. It is counted before income taxes and before deductions such as Social Security and Medicare, and it leaves out capital gains, tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, and noncash benefits such as nutrition assistance, health benefits and subsidized housing.

Earlier years are restated in 2025 dollars. For years since 2000, the bureau uses the chained Consumer Price Index, which it says rose 2.5% between 2024 and 2025. That is one reason the 2024 median in this report is higher than the $83,730 the bureau published a year ago, which was in 2024 dollars. The bureau also revised its 2024 estimates with new population controls. Because the October 2025 price index is not available, owing to the 2025 lapse in federal appropriations, the bureau estimated that month from the September and November figures.

Survey response is another caveat. The weighted response rate for the 2026 survey was 61.3%, against 62.0% a year earlier and still below pre-pandemic levels. The bureau adjusts its survey weights for nonresponse to reduce the risk of bias.

Who gained in 2025

For every group of households in the report's summary figure, the 2025 median was either higher than in 2024 or not statistically different. Median income rose 4.8% for Black households and 3.0% for White households, while the changes for Asian and Hispanic households were not statistically significant. The bureau adds that the differences between these groups' rates of change were not significant either.

The South, which had the lowest median of the four regions, was the only region with a statistically significant rise. Households headed by someone aged 65 or older, whose median was about $42,000 below that of younger households, gained 3.1%.

Gains in the middle and at the top

Income at the 90th percentile rose 1.7% to $261,300, while the change at the 10th percentile, $20,010, was not statistically significant. The ratio of the median to the 10th percentile rose 3.5%, from 4.22 to 4.37, so the distance between the bottom and the middle widened. The Gini index, a broader measure of inequality, was 0.490, not significantly different from 2024. The top fifth of households received 52.4% of all household income and the bottom fifth 3.0%.

After federal and state income taxes and credits and payroll taxes, the median was $76,060, which was 13.0% below the pretax median and 3.1% above its 2024 level of $73,760. The bureau says that rise was not significantly different from the pretax one. Measured by the Gini index, inequality was 8.7% lower after taxes than before. The bureau's 2025 tax model included the new enhanced deduction for adults aged 65 and older and the higher maximum child tax credit. It did not include the new deductions for tip and overtime income, because of data limitations in the survey.

Earnings and the pay gap

All workers had median earnings of $52,770, and full-time, year-round workers $66,620; neither figure changed significantly from 2024. Women working full time, year-round had median earnings of $60,760, up 3.2%, while men's, at $72,380, did not change significantly. That lifted the female-to-male earnings ratio to 83.9% from 80.6%, its first significant annual rise since 2016, after two years of significant declines.

What has happened since

The bureau recommends this survey for national figures. For states and smaller areas, it points to the American Community Survey and to its Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates program. The American Community Survey's 2025 one-year estimates were released on October 29, 2026, and the bureau's brief on them found that real median household income rose for the nation and in 14 states between 2024 and 2025.

The latest pay data show wages falling behind prices. In the 12 months to September 2026, wages and salaries for civilian workers rose 3.1%, while private-sector wages adjusted for inflation fell 0.6%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on October 30. Our report on the Employment Cost Index has the details.