# Income of top 1% of US pop **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 4, 2000, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/income-of-top-1-of-us-pop/35592 "2000-10-04T05:38:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![njk8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f9b8f/32.png) [@njk8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njk8)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/income-of-top-1-of-us-pop/35592/1 "2000-10-04T05:38:28Z")
After watching tonights lively debate, my roomates and i began debating what the cutoff income level was to be considered for the top 1% of income earners in the USA. we tried searching US Census data but could not locate the answer. answers ranged from 100,000 to 5,000,000. does anyone know what this number is, or where we can find it. also, a statistacal side note could be used if we knew the mean, standard deviation, and what type of distribution. but i guess anyone who knew that information would probably be able to give me the answer. nick ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/income-of-top-1-of-us-pop/35592/2 "2000-10-04T05:49:20Z")
I refer you to [the master](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_139.html). In that column, you can extrapolate that the top 1% would be making somewhere around $230,000. And welcome to the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![njk8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f9b8f/32.png) [@njk8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njk8)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/income-of-top-1-of-us-pop/35592/3 "2000-10-04T14:57:17Z")
friedo. i am sorry, i dont understand how you got that number? i looked at the link you sent and here is what i saw, "The top 3 percent of filers, those making $100,000-plus, paid 40 percent of the taxes. The top four-fifths of 1 percent of filers, who make $200,000 or more, paid 26 percent of the taxes. " if that is the case, then how can the top 0.8% (four fifths of one percent) be making less than the top 1% (your number $230,000)? perhaps i missed something, but i dont follow your logic. ---
**Author:** ![Tretiak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@Tretiak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tretiak)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/income-of-top-1-of-us-pop/35592/4 "2000-10-04T16:14:42Z")
According to this [ABCnews.com](http://ABCnews.com) link it is $300,000. [http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/debate001003\_truthsquad.html](http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/DailyNews/debate001003_truthsquad.html) ---
**Author:** ![MinkMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minkman/32/19170_2.png) [@MinkMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MinkMan)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/income-of-top-1-of-us-pop/35592/5 "2000-10-04T16:17:34Z")
[here.](http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income99.html) It doesn’t break the figures down to the top 1%, but it does give results by quintile and the top 5%. The figure they give as the lower limit of the top 5% is approx. $142,000. So we know it’s somewhere above that. Perhaps a person with a better grasp of statistics that I could extrapolate from the data in the report. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/income-of-top-1-of-us-pop/35592/6 "2000-10-04T16:28:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by njk8 \* > " > > if that is the case, then how can the top 0.8% (four fifths of one percent) be making less than the top 1% (your number $230,000)? > > perhaps i missed something, but i dont follow your logic. You’re right, I did it backwards and didn’t check the numbers. The top 1% would be making _less_ than $200,000. My bad. ---
**Author:** ![Tretiak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@Tretiak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tretiak)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/income-of-top-1-of-us-pop/35592/7 "2000-10-04T17:37:24Z")
That column is four years old so the numbersin it are almost certainly wrong to the low side. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/income-of-top-1-of-us-pop/35592/8 "2000-10-04T18:26:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tretiak \* > \*\*That column is four years old so the numbersin it are almost certainly wrong to the low side. \*\* Yeah, but the economy hasn’t changed _that_ much in four years. I’m sure the numbers are close enough for discussing current policy. ---
**Author:** ![Tretiak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@Tretiak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tretiak)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/income-of-top-1-of-us-pop/35592/9 "2000-10-04T20:37:25Z")
Well I guess 200,000 (like the four year old Cecil column)or 300,000 (like ABC News site) is not that big difference if all the OP wanted was a bllapark figure (i.e. is it 100,000 or $1 million?). ---
**Author:** ![Powers106](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@Powers106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers106)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2000, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/income-of-top-1-of-us-pop/35592/10 "2000-10-04T22:22:07Z")
Neal Boortz says that the top 1% of the population earns $230,000 or more a year, earns 17% of the overall income, yet pays 33% of all taxes. I can’t vouch for the figures myself, but Neal has been singing that tune for a long time and he usually corrects himself if a listener calls him on a bad figure. Anyway, is Al Gore one of the Wealthiest 1% - could he be one of the “bad guys”? I guess he files public returns (or discloses in some fashion) since he is a candidate, right?