U.S. Household Incomes: A 42-Year Perspective

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.businessinsider.com/us-household-incomes-a-42-year-perspective-2011-8

Earlier this year I had the privilege of speaking at the Spring Conference of the Retirement Income Industry Association (RIIA). My presentation, The Retirement Puzzle in an Age of Uncertainty, featured a PowerPoint collection of about 40 slides elaborating on various aspects of the puzzle.

Yesterday's update on disposable personal incomes reminded me of some charts on household income that I prepared for the conference, ones that I'll also be discussing in my presentation at the RIIA Fall Conference in Boston coming up in early October (I hope to see some of you there).

My data source is the Census Bureau, which publishes a quintile breakdown of data from 1967 through 2009 (see Table H.3).



The pie chart here shows that the top fifth of households in 2009 took home 50% of the nation's income. The middle fifth received 15% and bottom fifth a mere 3%.

:snip:



More at the link --