# What is the top 1 percent?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 19, 2017, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811 "2017-04-19T21:03:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@cjackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjackson)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2017, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/1 "2017-04-19T21:03:13Z")
How much does an individual need to make in order to be in the top 1 percent? How many top 1 percent earners are in this country?
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### Author:  [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2017, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/2 "2017-04-19T21:08:56Z")
The second question is easy: Given there are about 450 million people in the US, 1% of that number is roughly 4.5 million.
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2017, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/3 "2017-04-19T21:17:45Z")
> [@cjackson](#):
>
> How much does an individual need to make in order to be in the top 1 percent? How many top 1 percent earners are in this country?
[Here’s a helpful plot of data from 2010.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Distribution_of_Annual_Household_Income_in_the_United_States_2010.png) It lacks the resolution you need to see the top 1 percent of household incomes, but it does show that to be in the top 2%, you need a household income above $250,000.
That data is seven years old now, and it’s also averaged across the entire US. [Here’s data from 2015 for several different US cities;](http://www.businessinsider.com/income-top-one-percent-us-cities-2015-8) the cutoff varies between $383,000 and $609,000 depending on which city we’re talking about.
Note also that this is household income, and you asked about individual income. This might make a difference, since (I suspect) many high-income households have two individual earners.
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### Author:  [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2017, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/4 "2017-04-19T21:30:18Z")
From various sources on the internet to be in the top 1% of households your household needs to make about $460,000 a year.
> **[How Much Income Puts You in the Top 1%, 5%, 10%?](https://www.investopedia.com/personal-finance/how-much-income-puts-you-top-1-5-10/)**
>
> To count yourself among the nation's top earners, it takes an income of at least six figures. Here's how the numbers break down for each group.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2017, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/5 "2017-04-19T21:37:25Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#):
>
> The second question is easy: Given there are about 450 million people in the US, 1% of that number is roughly 4.5 million.
I think you’re overestimating the population of the US. The Census Bureau [says](https://www.census.gov/popclock/) it’s about 325 million.
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### Author:  [@Barack\_Obama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barack_Obama)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2017, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/6 "2017-04-19T21:38:48Z")
I believe you’re looking for the top 0.1% not the top 1%.
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### Author:  [@Caldazar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caldazar)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2017, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/7 "2017-04-19T21:44:39Z")
Income data is sampled by the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey. Latest data available is for 2015.
Lower bound for the top 1% of individual income was in the range of $240,000 - $290,000 , depending on who exactly you are choosing to include in your count (age ranges, employment statuses, etc…)
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### Author:  [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2017, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/8 "2017-04-19T23:36:17Z")
It’s a little tricky because married couples often file a single tax return. And much of the survey data covers entire households.
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/9 "2017-04-20T01:17:20Z")
How about top 1% worldwide. Lot’s of dirt poor people out there in world. I’m thinking I might make the top 1% of humanity.
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### Author:  [@jjakucyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjakucyk)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/10 "2017-04-20T02:13:42Z")
There’s also a big difference between top 1% income and top 1% wealth. Many of the top 1% wealthy folks may have little or even no traditional income per se, they have just amassed huge amounts of net worth that makes the top 1% income earners look like paupers in comparison. So while the top 1% income may be somewhere around 10x the median, the top 1% net worth is more like 100x the median.
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### Author:  [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/11 "2017-04-20T03:15:54Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#):
>
> How about top 1% worldwide. Lot’s of dirt poor people out there in world. I’m thinking I might make the top 1% of humanity.
If you live in the US and have an income near or above the US median, there’s a good chance you do.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/12 "2017-04-20T03:56:01Z")
> [@Caldazar](#):
>
> Income data is sampled by the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey. Latest data available is for 2015.
>
> Lower bound for the top 1% of individual income was in the range of $240,000 - $290,000 , depending on who exactly you are choosing to include in your count (age ranges, employment statuses, etc…)
I was actually there for about six months. Worst job ever.
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### Author:  [@Dana\_Scully](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dana_Scully)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/13 "2017-04-20T04:14:28Z")
> [@cjackson](#):
>
> How much does an individual need to make in order to be in the top 1 percent? How many top 1 percent earners are in this country?
I don’t really know what constitutes “the top 1 per cent” but I know for sure it’s NOT me 😃
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/14 "2017-04-20T07:08:56Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#):
>
> If you live in the US and have an income near or above the US median, there’s a good chance you do.
Some rough numbers:
$[32,000](http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/050615/are-you-top-one-percent-world.asp) is the global 1%,[$30,000](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States) is the US median (mean: $44,500). So yeah, the chances are pretty great.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/15 "2017-04-20T11:33:36Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#):
>
> The second question is easy: Given there are about 450 million people in the US, 1% of that number is roughly 4.5 million.
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> I think you’re overestimating the population of the US. The Census Bureau [says](https://www.census.gov/popclock/) it’s about 325 million.
I think you are both overestimating the number of wage earners there are in the US.
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### Author:  [@igor\_frankensteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/igor_frankensteen)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/16 "2017-04-20T11:40:50Z")
The main thing to realize, is that “one percenters” is a slang political term, which came to the fore, due to a surprising number of fools who actually believe that the most wealthy people are best off when they entirely ignore, or even directly sabotage the interests of the less wealthy.
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### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/17 "2017-04-20T11:42:21Z")
Here are some [2012 statistics from the IRS [pdf]](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/soi-a-ints-id1506.pdf) which may be helpful.
Altogether 9043 Gigadollars of Adjusted Gross Income was reported on 136.1 million Individual Tax Returns. (Dependents’ returns and returns filed just for certain credits were not included.) Dividing $9043G by 136.1 M households yields $66,444 average household income as shown in the following chart at “All.”
Each line in this chart shows cohort name (e.g. “Top 0.001%”), number of households in the cohort, total earnings of the cohort in billions of dollars, and average earnings of households in the cohort. Below each cohort is the AGI minimum needed to join that cohort. I’ve added lines like “1 to 0.1” to show subsets of the cohorts defined by IRS. For example, if you aspire to the Top 1% so your income averages $1.45 million, be aware that this cohort includes the 0.1, 0.01 and 0.001 cohorts as well. If you aspire only to “Top 1% but not Top 0.1%” your average earnings will be only $768,000.
Be aware that these statistics show only the IRS’s AGI, so do not reflect full wealth (e.g. unrealized capital gains) or income (e.g. business “expenses”).
```auto
**Top 0.001% 1361 219 $161m**
Thresh $62.07M
**Top 0.01% 13610 497 $36.8m**
Thresh $12.10M
0.01 - .001 12250 278 $22.7m
**Top 0.1% 136100 1017 $7.47m**
Thresh $2.16M
0.1 - 0.01 122500 520 $4.66m
**Top 1% 1,361,000 1980 $1.45m**
Thresh $434.7k
1 to 0.1 1,225,000 963 $786k
**Top 2% 2,722,000 2451 $900k**
Thresh $285.9k
2 to 1 1,361,000 471 $346k
**Top 5% 6,805,000 3328 $490k**
Thresh $175.8k
5.0 - 2 4,083,000 877 $214.8k
**Top 10% 13,610,000 4332 $318k**
Thresh $125.2k
10 - 5 6,805,000 1004 $147.5k
**Top 25% 34,025,000 6264 $184.1k**
Thresh $73.35K
25 - 10 20,415,000 1932 $94.64
**Top 50% 68,050,000 8039 $118.1k**
Thresh $36.06K
50 - 25 34,025,000 1775 $52.2
**All 136,100,000 9043 $66.4k**
100-50 68,050,000 1004 $14.7k
```
Income inequality has been rising. The IRS notes that the total earnings of the 0.001% cohort increased by 51% from 2011 to 2012.
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/18 "2017-04-20T12:12:58Z")
> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> Some rough numbers:
> $[32,000](http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/050615/are-you-top-one-percent-world.asp) is the global 1%,[$30,000](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States) is the US median (mean: $44,500). So yeah, the chances are pretty great.
Wow, I’m probably more likely in the 0.1% of total humanity. That actually makes me kind of bummed out, but not so bummed out that I’m not excited or feeling guilty about getting my Galaxy S8+ this morning. 😃
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/19 "2017-04-20T12:42:14Z")
Since a person’s net worth and annual income both tend to increase over time, it would be also be instructive to consider how these distributions change with a person’s age. For example, the top percentile for people in their 20s is surely much lower than the top percentile for people in their 50s.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2017, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-top-1-percent/784811/20 "2017-04-20T12:52:28Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> I think you are both overestimating the number of wage earners there are in the US.
I said _nothing_ about the number of wage earners, so I don’t see how how I was underestimating _anything_.
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