Salary and Household Income Percentile Calculator (2025 Data)

Among full-time, year-round workers of all ages, $100,000 of earnings in 2025 is about the 72nd percentile: roughly 28% of them earned more. Among everyone with any earnings (part-time and part-year workers included) it ranks higher, about the 78th, because the group includes many people who work fewer hours. Age matters: among full-time, year-round workers aged 25 to 34 it is about the 79th percentile, and among those aged 35 to 44 about the 66th, since pay rises with experience.

The Census Bureau groups everyone at $100,000 and over in a single row, so these figures are estimates (how they are made is in the question on accuracy below), not a count taken from the table.

Among full-time, year-round workers of all ages: about $171,000 for the top 10% (the 90th percentile), about $230,000 for the top 5% and about $451,000 for the top 1%. Among everyone with earnings the bars are lower, about $154,000, $208,000 and $407,000, because part-time and part-year workers are in the comparison.

These are all above the $100,000 line where the table stops splitting people, so they are estimates, and the top 1% figure is the least certain: it depends on the thin top of the distribution, where a handful of survey respondents move the average a lot. The calculator above gives the same thresholds for any age, sex and education you pick.

The Census Bureau's “total money earnings”: money wages and salaries (including bonuses, commissions and tips) plus net income from self-employment, before taxes and payroll deductions, for the calendar year 2025. It leaves out interest, dividends, rent, retirement and Social Security income, benefits such as employer health insurance or a 401(k) match, and the value of stock you did not sell. A business loss counts as negative earnings, so such a person sits in the lowest band. If you are paid hourly, use your yearly total, not the hourly rate.

For a salaried job, full-time, year-round workers (usually 35 or more hours a week for at least 50 weeks, the Census definition) is the like-for-like group: the median is $66,650 in the 2026 tables. “Everyone with earnings” adds part-time and part-year workers and lowers the median to $54,350; use it if you work fewer hours or only part of the year yourself. “All adults” also counts people with no earnings at all (students, retirees, people not working) as earning $0, so nearly any pay ranks high; it answers “how do I compare with adults in general”, which is rarely the question.

A lot. $80,000 is about the 68th percentile of full-time, year-round workers aged 25 to 34 but about the 53rd of those aged 45 to 54; about the 78th of high school graduates (25 and over) but about the 33rd of people whose highest degree is a master's; and about the 67th of women against the 55th of men. The groups differ because typical earnings do: that is what the percentile of your own group tells you, a fair check against your peers and not a statement about what anyone is worth.

Below $100,000, the calculator uses the Census Bureau's own method, a straight line inside each $2,500 band (the Source and Accuracy statement says the Bureau uses linear interpolation for every median it prints). Test of that: on more than 250 medians the Census tables print below $100,000, the calculator's own median is within $450 of the printed one. What it cannot do is see inside a band: pay that is a round number such as $50,000, $75,000 or $100,000 is common, and those people sit at the bottom of their band, so the page shows the range the band spans.

At $100,000 and over the table gives one open row. The calculator spreads those people using the shape of the Census Bureau's finer table for men and women (bands of $100,000 to $149,999, $150,000 to $199,999, $200,000 to $249,999 and $250,000 and over), stretched so that the group's average pay and, when the median is itself above $100,000, its median match what Census prints. Tested without the answer: building a group such as “bachelor's degree or higher” out of its separately fitted pieces (bachelor's, master's, professional, doctorate) and checking it against that group's printed median, the estimate was within one percentage point in at least nine of ten checks, and within about five points at worst (men aged 45 to 54 with a bachelor's degree or higher). Fitted on one sex's shape and told only the other sex's average and a single point, it predicted the shares above $200,000 and $250,000 to within about one percentage point of the people at $100,000 and over.

An outside check on the middle of the distribution: the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers aged 25 and over (second quarter 2026). Times 52 they are $51,688 for a high school diploma against $51,480 here (2025, full-time and year-round, wages and self-employment), $84,656 against $83,430 for a bachelor's degree only and $41,756 against $41,400 for less than a high school diploma: all within 2%. At the top the two measures differ more, as the top 10% guide shows.

Household income works the same way on the Census Bureau's household tables: $5,000 bands up to $200,000, then one open row, spread with the shape of its finer split ($200,000 to $249,999 and $250,000 and over). The calculator's median lands within $2,600 of the printed median in all 24 cases checked (within $700 in 22), and, told only each race group's average income at $200,000 and over, it put the share at $250,000 and over within seven points of what Census prints for that group, which moves a household's percentile by about one point.

Then there is sampling error: the figures come from a sample survey (the Current Population Survey interviews about 50,000 households a month, and its March supplement adds more), not a count of everyone. For the whole group the median's standard error is about $631 on $54,350; for small groups it is several times larger (the page shows it for the group you pick).

Switch the calculator to “My household's income”. A household's income is everyone in the home added together, and it includes money that is not earnings (Social Security, pensions, interest, dividends). The median US household had $87,460 in 2025. $100,000 of household income is about the 55th percentile of all households, but the 36th percentile of married-couple households (who usually have two earners) and the 81st percentile of people living alone. To reach the top 10% of all households it takes about $259,000, the top 5% about $346,000 and the top 1% about $675,000; from $200,000 up these are estimates, like the individual figures.

The table does not know how many people live in the home, so a household of five and a household of one are in the same row; only the type of household (married couple, no spouse present, living alone) and the age of the person who owns or rents the home are split out. Percentiles built on tax data rank tax returns, and a joint return holds two people. When someone quotes “the top 10% earn…”, check whether they mean people, households or returns before comparing it with your own figure.

The Current Population Survey's Annual Social and Economic Supplement is collected in early each year and asks about the previous calendar year, so the 2026 tables describe earnings in 2025. The Census Bureau publishes a new edition every year, and this page uses the 2026 one. If your pay is for 2026, compare it with last year's distribution knowing that wages have risen since: the same job with a normal raise would rank a little lower than it did.