Income & purchasing power

More income.
For how many people?

A $60,000 income supports a different life for one person than for a household of four. Start with median income adjusted for household size, composition, and inflation.

Understand the measure ↓

Observed Census data

Household income growth

Choose a published annual comparison

This is household income growth. Wages, self-employment, retirement income and other cash sources can all contribute. It is not a measure of hourly wage growth.

National median / adjusted for household size and composition

2024 to 2025

Both values in 2025 dollars

Income year 2024$115,20090% margin of error: ±$1,139

Income year 2025$118,20090% margin of error: ±$1,330

Census equivalence-adjusted income, on a standardized two-adult, two-child household scale. This is not the median restricted to actual households of four, an individual salary, or dollars received by every household. Bars begin at zero.

For context: without the household-size adjustment

The headline median was $85,210 → $87,460, in the same 2025 dollars. Published real change: +2.6% (±1.49 percentage points). Census marks that change as statistically significant at 90%.

Source: Census P60-289, Table 5, 50th percentile rows (XLSX). Released September 15, 2026. Retrieved October 19, 2026.

2024 revised using Vintage 2025 population controls; both years use the 2026 release. The displayed growth rate is Census’s published result; recalculating from rounded dollar values can differ slightly.

The adjustment can change the picture

Three annual comparisons.

Real percentage change · 0% to 5% scale

Size-adjusted income is our main household measure. The headline measure is shown for context. An adjustment can raise or lower measured growth.

2022 → 2023

Size adjusted+3.3%

Headline+4.0%

2023 → 2024

Size adjusted+2.8%

Headline+1.3%

2024 → 2025

Size adjusted+2.6%

Headline+2.6%

Each pair uses one report’s estimates and inflation base. These are historical releases, not a single revised level series. Do not compound these bars into a long-run growth estimate. Sampling uncertainty is shown in the table.

Read all values, uncertainty and sources

Published real medians and changes, with 90% margins of error. Both income values use the dollar year shown.
Pair / dollar year	Measure	Earlier median ± MOE	Later median ± MOE	Growth ± MOE (pp)	Release / source
2022–2023 2023 dollars	Size adjusted	$103,500 ±$1,153	$106,900 ±$1,218	+3.3% ±1.41 pp Significant at 90%	P60-282, Table A-3 September 10, 2024
2022–2023 2023 dollars	Headline	$77,540 ±$1,006	$80,610 ±$634	+4.0% ±1.40 pp Significant at 90%	P60-282, Table A-3 September 10, 2024
2023–2024 2024 dollars	Size adjusted	$109,700 ±$1,250	$112,700 ±$1,121	+2.8% ±1.47 pp Significant at 90%	P60-286, Table A-3 September 9, 2025
2023–2024 2024 dollars	Headline	$82,690 ±$651	$83,730 ±$1,050	+1.3% ±1.41 pp Not significant at 90%	P60-286, Table A-3 September 9, 2025
2024–2025 2025 dollars	Size adjusted	$115,200 ±$1,139	$118,200 ±$1,330	+2.6% ±1.38 pp Significant at 90%	P60-289, Table 5 September 15, 2026
2024–2025 2025 dollars	Headline	$85,210 ±$1,069	$87,460 ±$1,040	+2.6% ±1.49 pp Significant at 90%	P60-289, Table 5 September 15, 2026

What “size adjusted” means

More people need more resources, but they can share housing, utilities and other expenses. Children and adults also have different needs. Census uses a three-parameter equivalence scale to account for these differences. It adjusts income at the household level before calculating the median. Dividing the national median by average household size would not do the same job. Census explains the adjustment ↗

The dollar scale expresses income in equivalent two-adult, two-child household terms. Census documents that reference household in its methodology note (2016, PDF page 24).

For comparisons of household resources, this addresses a real weakness in the headline median. It does not turn the result into a complete measure of living standards. Location, taxes, debt, health needs, wealth and public services still matter.

“Median” is the midpoint of the measured distribution, not the arithmetic average. “Real” means adjusted for inflation. These comparisons use Census’s inflation adjustment, rather than applying TimePrice’s monthly CPI adjustment a second time.

Same dollars. Different demands.

This hypothetical example isolates the household adjustment. Both incomes are in the same year’s dollars. It does not estimate a national median or tell either household how much it needs to live.

The incomes are equal. After adjusting for household size and composition, Household B has 53.7% fewer resources on this scale than Household A.

Income comparison: $60,000 ÷ $60,000. Adjusted comparison: ($60,000 ÷ 2.1577) ÷ ($60,000 ÷ 1.0000).

Formula and assumptions

Compare (income B ÷ scale B) with (income A ÷ scale A). Percentage change = (that ratio − 1) × 100. A common normalization cancels from the ratio.

For one or two adults without children: scale = adults^0.5. For one adult with children: (1 + 0.8 + 0.5 × other children)^0.7. Otherwise: (adults + 0.5 × children)^0.7. These are the published Census equivalence formulas, not a simple per-person division.

Census equivalence method; September 2026 technical documentation, section 4.2.1 (PDF).

Your example stays in page memory. It is not saved, sent, or included in a shared comparison.

A household is not an hour of work.

A household can have several earners, no earners, or income from retirement and investments. Household income may change because pay changed, more people worked, hours changed, or other income changed.

That is why TimePrice still uses BLS average gross hourly earnings to calculate work minutes. Dividing annual household income by an assumed work year would turn family composition into a misleading hourly wage.

Compare prices, hourly pay and work minutes →

What the data covers

United States, CPS ASEC households, excluding group quarters. Income covers the stated calendar year; household composition is measured in March of the following year. Money income is before taxes, includes earnings and other cash sources, and excludes capital gains and noncash benefits.

Latest release: September 15, 2026. Latest income year: 2025. The latest pair uses revised 2024 estimates from that same release. Earlier comparisons retain their own releases and dollar bases. There is no 2026 annual income result or inferred longer history in this tool.

Census’s annual inflation adjustment uses C-CPI-U for these years. Its 2025 index includes a disclosed approximation for the missing October observation, using the geometric mean of September and November. Taldris has not filled a missing observation itself. See Appendix A of the 2025 income report (PDF).

Source medians are rounded and interpolated. The app displays Census’s published growth rates and 90% margins of error. Margins of error describe sampling uncertainty, not every possible survey error. Household-size adjustment does not remove nonresponse bias. A national median does not track the same households over time or establish why income changed.

Download the versioned income snapshot (JSON) · Read the latest Census report

Income sources checked October 19, 2026. This is a saved data snapshot, not a live connection to Census. Sources and corrections.