Top 10 States With Highest and Lowest Median Household Income In The US

Rosemary January 30, 2024 | 09:43

Which state in the US has the highest and lowest median household income? How far do you know about median household income?

Contents
What is median household income? How much is the average median household income in the US? Median household income in the U.S. by family size Top 10 states with the highest median household income Top 10 states with the lowest median household income Summary

What is median household income?

To find out how much money a household makes, add up the annual income made before taxes by all adults living there. The Census Bureau divides the list of all US families by income in half, so that the bottom half are below the median income and the top half are above it. This gives us the national median income.

How much is the average median household income in the US?

The most current data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey for 2022 show that the median household income across the country is $74,580. It's 2.3% less than what was expected in 2021, when it was $76,330.

When inflation is taken into account, the median family income in the U.S. rose about 37.8% from 1984 to its highest point of $78,250 in 2019. But the typical household income went down by 4.7% from 2019 to 2022.

Median household income in the U.S. by state

There are also differences in income between states. In 2022, the typical household income in Washington, D.C. was $101,027, while it was only $52,719 in Mississippi.

The pay gap between men and women is present all over the United States, as shown by the median income by state. Women never make more than men in any state.

Median household income in the U.S. by age and gender

A householder's age tends to make their income go up, but only up to a certain point. A householder is the person who owns or rents the home. According to the Census, the highest median family income is $97,089 for people aged 45 to 54.

From here, older Americans' incomes go down. The median household income for people 55 to 64 years old is $75,842, and the median household income for people 65 and older is $47,620.

The usual household income for six age groups is shown below.

Age of householder	Median household income
15–24	$51,645
25–34	$74,862
35–44	$90,312
45–54	$97,089
55–64	$75,842
65+	$47,620

In terms of income, people aged 15 to 24 made a little more than $4,000 more than people aged 65 and up. The median household income for people ages 25 to 34 is only $980 less than the median household income for people ages 55 to 64.

The way the Census Bureau keeps track of income data makes it hard to find the median family income by gender. You can see that the median household income data is only broken down by gender for family households and nonfamily households.

The best way to compare the incomes of American men and women is to use what the Census Bureau calls "median earnings for full-time, year-round workers with earnings."

This table shows all the information we have about income by gender.

Gender	Median earnings
Female	$49,263
Male	$60,428
Gender	Median household income
Female householder, no spouse present	$51,168
Male householder, no spouse present	$70,525
Female householder, nonfamily household	$35,737
Male householder, nonfamily household	$49,466

Median household income in the U.S. by family size

The average family income changes based on how many people live in the home. It's harder to pay your bills when you have a lot of people to feed and clothe.

The U.S. median family income is broken down by family size like this:

A table showing median income by family size in 2021.

Family income by family size	Median income
2-person families	$80,329
3-person families	$95,770
4-person families	$113,919
5-person families	$107,130
6-person families	$104,186
7-or-more person families	$109,154

The highest income for a family of four in the U.S. is $113,919, and the lowest income for a family of five or more is around $107,000. Between families of three and families of four, the typical income goes up the most. The median income for the first one is $95,770, and the median income for the second one is $113,919.

What do you know?

Income in the U.S. by gender: About half of men made $52,612 a year in 2022. For full-time workers, the typical salary for women was $39,688, which is 75% of what men made.

U.S. salary breakdown by state and major area: With a typical income of $101,027, households in Washington, D.C. had the most money in 2022. Mississippi had the lowest median family income, at $52,719 per year.

Median family income in the U.S. The average family income for two people is $80,329, which is the lowest of all family types. A family of four makes the most money, with an average of $113,919 per year.

Average income in the U.S. by age: In 2022, the average income for people 45 to 64 years old was $90,748. This was the highest income of any age group.

U.S. income by race: In 2022, Asian Americans made the most money, with a median of $106,945. The middle income for white Americans was $79,933.

Top 10 states with the highest median household income

A look at how the median household income in the U.S. is spread out by geography shows that some of the highest median household incomes are in the northern corridor, which goes from New Hampshire to Virginia, and in the western corridor, which goes from California to Washington. On the other hand, some of the lowest are in the South and parts of the Midwest.

In the United States, the median family income can be very different from one state to the next. Most households will make between $46,637 and $97,332 in 2021, a difference of more than $50,000.

With a typical income of $90,640, Washington, D.C., had the second-highest income. It's not a state, though, so we didn't put it on our records.

1. Maryland: $97,332

2. New Hampshire: $88,841

3. New Jersey: $88,559

4. Utah: $87,649

5. Washington: $87,648

6. Massachusetts: $86,566

7. Colorado: $84,954

8. Hawaii: $82,199

9. Oregon: $81,855

10. California: $81,575

Top 10 states with the lowest median household income

1. Mississippi: $46,637

2. West Virginia: $46,836

3. Arkansas: $50,784

4. New Mexico: $53,463

5. Kentucky: $55,629

6. Alabama: $56,929

7. Louisiana: $57,206

8. Florida: $59,734

9. Oklahoma: $60,096

10. Georgia: $61,497

Summary

In 2021, the middle-class American family income will be $70,784, up from $68,010 in 2020. A look at median household income by state shows that Maryland has the highest median household income at $97,332. Mississippi has a median family income of $46,637, which is the lowest of any state.