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Distribution of Personal Income

Distribution of Personal Income

Distribution of U.S. Personal Income

These statistics distribute the income totals in NIPA Table 2.1 to households, bridging national economic accounts and household-level data ("Technical Document: A Methodology for Distributing Personal Income"). The estimates show how major income sources contribute to household income across the distribution, and how this composition has evolved over  time. Together, they provide a consistent, nationally-anchored picture of how personal income and its components flow to U.S. households (adjusted for household size), enabling comparisons both within a given year and over the full time series.

The following is the total growth in nominal personal income by quintile (2000-2024).

Growth Rate by Quintile, Nominal Personal Income, 2000-2024

National Nowcast

To improve timeliness, BEA has developed an experimental nowcast for 2025 that balances user needs for relevance and accuracy. Machine learning techniques analyze relationships between published annual distributions and current NIPA totals to generate timely estimates at the quintile level. The nowcasting methodology is detailed in BEA Working Paper 2024-6, with an abridged version published in AEA Papers and Proceedings.

The following are estimates for shares (2024 and 2025) and growth of personal income (2024-2025) by quintile, as published for 2024 and nowcast for 2025:

  2024 Share of PI
(Published)		 2025 Share of PI
(Nowcast)		 2025 Nominal Growth in PI
(Nowcast)
Q1: 0-20% 5.3 5.2 4.1%
Q2: 20-40% 9.5 9.6 5.8%
Q3: 40-60% 13.4 13.4 5.0%
Q4: 60-80% 19.0 19.1 5.4%
Q5: 80-100% 52.8 52.7 4.6%

Distribution of State Personal Income

Prototype statistics showing how personal income is distributed across households in each state and the District of Columbia were updated in July 2025; this release also contains new statistics showing how disposable personal income (personal income after taxes) is distributed across households in each state. The release added new statistics for 2023 and updated the entire series from 2012 to 2022 based on new source data and updates in methods. These statistics build on the methodology BEA uses to estimate the national distribution of personal income. They are consistent with and complement existing BEA data on state personal income totals. Data users are invited to provide feedback on these prototype state statistics as we continue to research and make improvements.

Supplementary National Distributional Analysis

Income-Stratified PCE Price Index

The income-stratified personal consumption expenditures price index (ISPCEPX) measures inflation as experienced by households at different income levels. Because spending patterns differ across the distribution, inflation rates do as well. ISPCEPX provides the decile-specific price deflators used to compute real income growth in BEA's growth incidence curves.

Change in Equivalized Real Personal Income, 2000-2023

Growth Incidence Curve

The growth incidence curve (GIC) provides information about the evolution of income over time. A downward sloping GIC indicates that lower income households experienced faster growth than high income households.

Change in Equivalized Real Personal Income, 2000-2023
  • The GIC supplements other measures such as the Gini coefficient or the shares of personal income going to different deciles.
  • Growth Incidence Curves PDF

Distribution of Personal Saving

Based on Joint Distribution of Disposable Personal Income and Personal Consumption Expenditures

To provide a fuller picture of the well-being of households, BEA and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) have collaborated to produce a distribution of personal saving, by developing a joint distribution of disposable personal income (DPI) and personal consumption expenditures (PCE).

Chart of Personal Saving Rate by Income Decile for 2023.

Internationally Comparable Statistics

A series of internationally comparable research statistics has been provided that follow the guidance of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Expert Group on Disparities in a National Accounts framework (EG DNA).

Chart of Income Share by Quintile for 2023

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What is Distribution of Personal Income?

Measures how households are sharing in the U.S. economy's growth. Shows how total personal income in the United States is distributed across households.

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