# What does "the top 1%" of Americans mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 10, 2008, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-top-1-of-americans-mean/440882 "2008-03-10T20:52:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jharvey963](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/54ee81/32.png) [@jharvey963](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jharvey963)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2008, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-top-1-of-americans-mean/440882/1 "2008-03-10T20:52:44Z")
(Sorry about the “Americans” when referring only to US citizens/residents. I couldn’t think of a short term for US citizens/residents.) Ahem. Anyway, some of us were just talking at lunch about the oft-quoted statistics about the “top 1%” of Americans, typically in regards to earnings or net worth. Then we realized we didn’t have a clue where those thresholds were. So, does anyone know … (ok, let’s make this a 6 part question 😃 ) what is the boundary / threshold putting someone in the top 10%, the top 1% and the top 1/10th% based on earnings, and then based on net worth? Thanks, J. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2008, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-top-1-of-americans-mean/440882/2 "2008-03-10T21:00:32Z")
[QUOTE=jharvey963] (Sorry about the “Americans” when referring only to US citizens/residents. I couldn’t think of a short term for US citizens/residents.) [/quote] The proper short term is “Americans.” > [@](#): > > Anyway, some of us were just talking at lunch about the oft-quoted statistics about the “top 1%” of Americans, typically in regards to earnings or net worth. Then we realized we didn’t have a clue where those thresholds were. > > So, does anyone know … (ok, let’s make this a 6 part question 😃 ) what is the boundary / threshold putting someone in the top 10%, the top 1% and the top 1/10th% based on earnings, and then based on net worth? According to [these handy charts](http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/103815/Where-Do-You-Stand-on-America's-Wealth-Spectrum), the 90th percentile in income is $170,000 per year, and the 90th percentile in net worth is $833,000. I can’t find anything that breaks down the numbers between 90 and 99% with a cursory Google search. Perhaps when I get home from work I can take a look at the Census Bureau website; they probably know. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2008, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-top-1-of-americans-mean/440882/3 "2008-03-10T21:19:46Z")
In 2004, the average income of the top 1 percent of Americans was just shy of $900,000. [http://www.cbpp.org/1-23-07inc.htm](http://www.cbpp.org/1-23-07inc.htm) ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2008, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-top-1-of-americans-mean/440882/4 "2008-03-10T22:56:33Z")
When I was taking a Political Science course in my college years (1989 in this case), the professor – who had a left-leaning political bent – said that “7% of the population owns 63% of the wealth.” She was probably right. But since that time, the numbers seem to have become inflated through anecdotal repetition. Just last week, a co-worker “informed” me that 1% of the population owns **90%** of the wealth! At this rate, by 2010 people will be saying that 10 people in the world own 99% of the wealth, and their listeners will be swallowing that story regardless of the absuridy of the numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-top-1-of-americans-mean/440882/5 "2008-03-11T00:26:40Z")
[QUOTE=tracer] When I was taking a Political Science course in my college years (1989 in this case), the professor – who had a left-leaning political bent – said that “7% of the population owns 63% of the wealth.” She was probably right. [/QUOTE] If so, the gap has widened since then. According to [United Nations statistics](http://www.wider.unu.edu/events/past-events/2006-events/en_GB/05-12-2006/), the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world’s total wealth. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-top-1-of-americans-mean/440882/6 "2008-03-11T01:08:27Z")
> [@](#): > > In the United States, wealth is highly concentrated in a relatively few hands. As of 2001, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 33.4% of all privately held wealth, and the next 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 51%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 84%, leaving only 16% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers). from [here.](http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html) ---
**Author:** ![iwakura43](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de0a6/32.png) [@iwakura43](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iwakura43)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-top-1-of-americans-mean/440882/7 "2008-03-11T14:02:43Z")
[QUOTE=friedo] According to [these handy charts](http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/103815/Where-Do-You-Stand-on-America's-Wealth-Spectrum), the 90th percentile in income is $170,000 per year, and the 90th percentile in net worth is $833,000. [/QUOTE] The tortured analogy they use to present the data is a but weird, but since the data are bracketed into 10-percentile blocks and they present of the median of those blocks, I think $170,000 is the **95th** percentile of income and $833,000 the **95th** percentile of net worth. ---
**Author:** ![aptronym](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47774/32.png) [@aptronym](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aptronym)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2008, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-top-1-of-americans-mean/440882/8 "2008-03-11T22:55:28Z")
For top X% in adjusted gross incomes, the figures are here: [http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/indtaxstats/article/0,,id=133521,00.html](http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/indtaxstats/article/0,,id=133521,00.html)