# information about annual individual earnings in america

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-about-annual-individual-earnings-in-america/153670>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 8, 2003, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-about-annual-individual-earnings-in-america/153670 "2003-02-08T06:23:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![The\_Calculus\_of\_Logic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@The\_Calculus\_of\_Logic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Calculus_of_Logic)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-about-annual-individual-earnings-in-america/153670/1 "2003-02-08T06:23:20Z")

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I’ve read (but i can’t find the stats to back it up) that

1% of americans earn more than $293k a year  
5% earn more than 115k a year  
10% earn more than 80k a year.

I also read this

[http://clinton5.nara.gov/WH/new/html/Mon\_Jan\_8\_124311\_2001.html](http://clinton5.nara.gov/WH/new/html/Mon_Jan_8_124311_2001.html)

which shows that 7% earns less than $14k a year.

median household income is $42k a year

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/business/2280038.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/business/2280038.stm)

Where can i find stats on what amounts of american people earn X amount of money each year/hour, what the median household income is, and things along those lines (the american economic situation)?

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**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-about-annual-individual-earnings-in-america/153670/2 "2003-02-08T06:41:26Z")

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Try this site in the [Statistical Abstract of The United States](http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/01statab/income.pdf) from the Census Bureau.

It is .pdf so you will need Acrobat Reader.

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**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2003, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/information-about-annual-individual-earnings-in-america/153670/3 "2003-02-10T13:04:45Z")

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Well… this may not not be useful, but considering it’s “in America” technically, I’ve recently seen this on the news: Mexico’s people are both the richest and poorest country in the world, with a poverty level of 40% and a “wealthy” level of 4.5%. I don’t know which figures qualified for poverty or wealthy, but it’s a good case against [insert name of your most hated of political party here].