# How many people in the US make \>$100k/yr? $200k/yr? etc.? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 31, 2004, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-in-the-us-make-100k-yr-200k-yr-etc/237605 "2004-03-31T20:42:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2004, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-in-the-us-make-100k-yr-200k-yr-etc/237605/1 "2004-03-31T20:42:19Z")
I have just spent two hours trying to find a graph or table showing the percentile ranking of household incomes. I think that’s what it is called. I want something that will tell me what percentage of people or households make more or less than a given household. The IRS and census websites have lots of info on this, but I’ve only found data that goes up to “over $100,000/yr” and is listed in deciles. I am particularly interested in the distribution of incomes within the top 10 percent of households, so the data that I’ve found don’t help me. Do any of you know where I can find more detailed information? ---
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2004, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-in-the-us-make-100k-yr-200k-yr-etc/237605/2 "2004-03-31T21:06:03Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > I have just spent two hours trying to find a graph or table showing the percentile ranking of household incomes. I think that’s what it is called. I want something that will tell me what percentage of people or households make more or less than a given household. > > The IRS and census websites have lots of info on this, but I’ve only found data that goes up to “over $100,000/yr” and is listed in deciles. I am particularly interested in the distribution of incomes within the top 10 percent of households, so the data that I’ve found don’t help me. Do any of you know where I can find more detailed information? [Like this?](http://www.censusscope.org/us/s48/chart_income.html) ---
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2004, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-in-the-us-make-100k-yr-200k-yr-etc/237605/3 "2004-03-31T21:13:03Z")
> [@caphis](#): > > [Like this?](http://www.censusscope.org/us/s48/chart_income.html) Actually, [this](http://censtats.census.gov/data/US/01000.pdf) might be a better look. It’s from [census.gov](http://census.gov), and has data from 1999 (I think this is the most up-to-date version they offer). What you want is on page 3, right hand column. Data for both households AND families. In fact, [http://censtats.census.gov/data/](http://censtats.census.gov/data/US/01000.pdf) has a huge breakdown by area, if you want that. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2004, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-in-the-us-make-100k-yr-200k-yr-etc/237605/4 "2004-03-31T21:26:23Z")
It’s not as refined as I’d like, but it’s still much better than anything that I could come up with before. I’ll root around a bit and see if I can find anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2004, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-in-the-us-make-100k-yr-200k-yr-etc/237605/5 "2004-03-31T22:01:38Z")
One of my pals (for whom this kind of information is relatively important on occasion) states the following: > [@](#): > > "Your best bet for this sort of thing is the archives of Forbes or The Wallstreet Journal. You can also do a website search for Gallup Polls or the PEW Center. Why do you want to know this? Who wants to know this? I don’t check his sources, I just believe him. It’s easier that way. YOU, however, are welcome to take or leave the adveice. Hope it helps. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2004, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-in-the-us-make-100k-yr-200k-yr-etc/237605/6 "2004-03-31T22:37:12Z")
> [@caphis](#): > > [Like this?](http://www.censusscope.org/us/s48/chart_income.html) Hmm. according to that there are only 7,397,294 households in the US. THat doesn’t add up with a 290 million population. [http://regional-institute.buffalo.edu/images/sotr/02/char/econ/1\_10b\_lg.gif](http://regional-institute.buffalo.edu/images/sotr/02/char/econ/1_10b_lg.gif) There is a quintile division of household income with the mean of each bracket. i can’t back these stats up, but it is my understanding that median income is 26k 10% make 75k or more 5% make 115k or more 1% make 293k or more 0.1% make 700k or more Roughly like that. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-in-the-us-make-100k-yr-200k-yr-etc/237605/7 "2004-04-01T00:15:38Z")
26K is way low. A breakdown from the 2000 census is here: [http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?\_bm=y&-geo\_id=01000US&-qr\_name=DEC\_2000\_SF3\_U\_QTP32&-ds\_name=DEC\_2000\_SF3\_U&-\_lang=en&-\_sse=on](http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/QTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U_QTP32&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF3_U&-_lang=en&-_sse=on) median household income is $41K, and that table gives distribution of various levels, somewhat more detailed than the OP cites, although it still not be as fine grained as you want (it breaks down between 100K and 200K into 4 groups). ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-in-the-us-make-100k-yr-200k-yr-etc/237605/8 "2004-04-01T00:18:14Z")
$42K I should say, and \>$100 into 4 groups, the last of which is “\> $200K” ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-in-the-us-make-100k-yr-200k-yr-etc/237605/9 "2004-04-01T01:14:00Z")
26k is median individual income. 41k is median household income. If you have a husband/wife home where both work, or 2 roommates who both work that counts as 1 household each so the median household income rating will be higher than median individual income. Those other figures i put up are for individual income too. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2004, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-in-the-us-make-100k-yr-200k-yr-etc/237605/10 "2004-04-01T03:34:19Z")
> [@](#): > > Hmm. according to that there are only 7,397,294 households in the US. THat doesn’t add up with a 290 million population. I guess Texas is bigger than I thought it was… (It’s at the top of the graph.)