U.S. median family income

compiled by Wm. Robert Johnston
last updated 5 October 2025

Data for 1930-1946 are estimated. In recent years family income figures include unemployment compensation.

Sources:

income: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 2025, "Median family income in the United States (MEFAINUSA646N)," FRED, on line [https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEFAINUSA646N].
inflation: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025, "Consumer price index for all urban consumers (CPI-U)," BLS, on line [https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SA0?years_option=all_years].
taxation: Tax Foundation, March 2011, "Tax Freedom Day arrives on April 12," Tax Foundation, on line [https://files.taxfoundation.org/legacy/docs/sr190.pdf]; Tax Foundation, 7 April 2014, "Tax Freedom Day 2014: Data tables," Tax Foundation, on line [http://taxfoundation.org/article/tax-freedom-day-2014-data-tables]; Tax Foundation, 11 April 2018, "Tax Freedom Day 2018 is April 19th," Tax Foundation, on line [https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/tax-freedom-day-2018/]; Garrett Hawkins, 5 April 2023, "The fight over taxation is not about a day, but about the next generation," Missouri Farm Bureau, on line [https://mofb.org/the-fight-over-taxation-is-not-about-a-day-but-about-the-next-generation/].
supplementary pre-1947 income estimates: Craig Calhoun, ed., "Sociology in America: A History"; Scranton, Philip, 2011, "Tax rates of the mid-20th century," Teaching History, on line [http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/24489]; U.S. Census Bureau, July 1964, "Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1964," Census Bureau, on line [https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1964/compendia/statab/85ed.html]; Ware, Susan, "Women and the Great Depression," Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, on line [http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/great-depression/essays/women-and-great-depression].