People and Their Money - Households By Income Bracket

In this graphic we present information on households — not by fifths, as in the previous panels, but by income ranges. The chart shows percentile increases and decreases in the number of households within nine income ranges between the years 1990 and 2000. Data for this period show that households in the lower income ranges were declining, while households in higher income brackets were increasing — as wealth grew in the U.S. over all.

The biggest decrease in households has come in the bracket with less than $10,000 in annual income. Households in the $10,000-$14,999 and $15,000-$24,999 ranges have also declined. The biggest growth has come in the brackets with the highest incomes. Those in the $100,000-$149,000 bracket grew 211.5% and households in the $150,000 or more category a hefty 228.5%.

The line-bars indicate the percentage of all households that each income bracket represented in 2000, to be read on the right axis of the graphic. The line for the $100,000-$149,000 bracket stands for all households with incomes of $100,000 and above. A surprisingly large percentage of households (9%) still earned less than $10,000 a year. The largest income bracket, representing 18.9% of all households, was earning between $50,000 and $74,999. Income distribution is skewed toward the wealthy end — as we have already seen in other panels. One does not see here the well-known "Bell curve" of distribution that one might expect in a naturally evolving system.

The last ten years, in other words, display what is most likely a transitory distribution of income, due to the many factors discussed in the first two panels in this series, most notably the impact of the Baby Boom and shifts in the economic base from heavy industry to technology. To conclude, from these data, that these patterns will persist in the long run is probably risky — although real gains have been scored in the economy through gains in productivity, which are, in turn, resting on higher educational attainment and more efficient arrangements of running enterprises private and public.

Will a new middle class — now a seeming victim of skyrocketing wealth — emerge from this situation as the Baby Boom ages and as the economic gains of the Information Age are absorbed? Most likely. We are now seeing the erosion and disappearance of the very low brackets in favor of those — in terms of this graphic — to the right.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of the Census, "Selected Characteristics of Households, by Total Money Income in 2000," Current Population Survey, December 13, 2001.