This report presents estimates on income, earnings, and inequality in the United States for calendar year 2022, based on information collected in the 2023 and earlier Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplements (CPS ASEC) conducted by the Census Bureau.
The income estimates in the main sections of this report are based on the concept of money income, which is pretax and does not account for the value of in-kind transfers. Appendix A provides a detailed explanation of how income is measured using the CPS ASEC. Estimates of post-tax income and inequality are included in Appendix B.
- Real median household income was $74,580 in 2022, a 2.3 percent decline from the 2021 estimate of $76,330 (Figure 1 and Table A-1).
- Householders under the age of 65 experienced a decline in median household income of 1.4 percent from 2021, while householders aged 65 and over did not experience a significant change in median income between 2021 and 2022 (Figure 1).
- The money income Gini index decreased by 1.2 percent between 2021 and 2022 (from 0.494 to 0.488); this represents the first time the Gini index has shown an annual decrease since 2007 (Figure 3 and Table A-3).
- Between 2021 and 2022, the number of full-time, year-round workers increased by 3.4 percent, compared to a 1.7 percent increase in the number of total workers. This suggests a continuing shift from working part-time or part-year to full-time, year-round work.
- In 2022, 65.6 percent of working women worked full-time, year-round. This is the largest share on record.
- The real median earnings of all workers (including part-time and full-time workers) decreased 2.2 percent between 2021 and 2022. Median earnings of those who worked full-time, year-round decreased 1.3 percent (Figure 4 and Table A-6).
For More Information
To adjust for changes in the cost of living over time, historical income and earnings estimates in this report are expressed in real or 2022 dollars. This year, the Census Bureau started using the Chained Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (C-CPI-U), produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to inflation adjust income estimates from 2000 onward. The Census Bureau continues to use the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers Retroactive Series (R-CPI-U-RS), also produced by the BLS, to adjust income estimates before 2000. The annual index values are available in Appendix A. For more in-depth discussion of the effects of using different inflation indices on household income estimates, refer to Appendix C.
