In 2007 what was the median family income

Other data sources that do not have these limitations reveal sharp increases and historically high levels of inequality over these years.

Income analysts Piketty and Saez [MS Excel] have constructed a widely cited income series back to , using Internal Revenue Service data that include realized capital gains and include higher incomes. A deeper comparison of the past two economic cycles reveals that growth was much more broadly shared in the s than in the s, with the largest differences affecting minorities.

African American households in particular did much better in the s than in the s. An important dimension to this comparison is that productivity growth was actually faster in the s. In this sense, there was the potential for faster growth across the income scale in the s relative to the s, a potential that was never realized.

Figure 5 looks at poverty rates from forward, and Figure 6 does the same for real median household income for all households and for African Americans. Poverty rose in the recession of the s and for a few years during the weak recovery that followed. But then ensued a period of lasting, steep declines in poverty rates. Median income follows a similar pattern, with particularly sizable gains for African American households.

These patterns appeared to repeat themselves through the recession and jobless recovery. But instead of reversing course, the trends essentially stagnated through last year, which represented the last opportunity for improvements in this recovery. Table 2 presents a more extended set of comparisons over the two cycles. The top panel shows percent changes in real median household income and the bottom panel tracks percentage point changes in poverty rates. In , about The child poverty rate , which represents people under the age of 18 living in poverty, has been growing steadily over the first decade since the turn of the century, from In , it had lowered to The state with the widest gap between the rich and the poor was New York, with a gini coefficient score of 0.

The Gini coefficient is calculated by looking at average income rates. A score of zero would reflect perfect income equality and a score of one indicates a society where one person would have all the money and all other people have nothing. Loading statistic Show source. Download for free You need to log in to download this statistic Register for free Already a member? Log in. Show detailed source information?

Register for free Already a member? More information. Supplementary notes. Other statistics on the topic. Upper-income families, who derive a larger share of their wealth from financial market assets and business equity, were in a better position to benefit from a relatively quick recovery in the stock market once the recession ended. As with the distribution of aggregate income, the share of U.

The richest families in the U. The tilt to the top was most acute in the period from to The wealthiest families are also the only ones to have experienced gains in wealth in the years after the start of the Great Recession in By , this ratio had increased to , a much sharper rise than the widening gap in income.

S has increased since and is greater than in peer countries Income inequality may be measured in a number of ways , but no matter the measure , economic inequality in the U. The ratio increased in every decade since , reaching Comparisons of income inequality across countries are often based on the Gini coefficient , another commonly used measure of inequality. More globally, the Gini coefficient of inequality ranges from lows of about 0. Say "Alexa, enable the Pew Research Center flash briefing".

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It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Newsletters Donate My Account. Research Topics. Household incomes are growing again after a lengthy period of stagnation With periodic interruptions due to business cycle peaks and troughs, the incomes of American households overall have trended up since Need Help?

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