Top 1 Percent Income and Income Percentile Statistics (2026)

A tax return needed adjusted gross income of at least $675,602 to rank in the top 1% of US filers in tax year 2023, according to IRS Statistics of Income Table 4.1, published in March 2026. Tax year 2023 is the latest year the IRS has released at this level of detail. The threshold rose 1.9% from $663,164 in 2022, a Walnut calculation, and sits just below the 2021 high of $682,577.

The IRS figure counts 153,076,443 individual returns and leaves out returns filed by dependents. Adjusted gross income, or AGI, is income from wages, interest, dividends, capital gains, businesses, partnerships, pensions and other sources, minus a short list of adjustments such as some retirement contributions. It is measured per return, so a married couple filing jointly counts as one unit and their combined income is what gets ranked.

The Tax Foundation, a research organization, published the same IRS figures in April 2026 and calls the threshold the income split point. Its summary agrees with the IRS table to the dollar.

The cutoffs fall quickly below the top 1%. In tax year 2023 a return needed $453,137 to be in the top 2%, $361,737 for the top 3%, $307,631 for the top 4% and $272,209 for the top 5% (IRS SOI). The top 10% started at $187,608, the top 20% at $123,406 and the top 25% at $105,604.

The median return, the line between the top and bottom halves, was $53,801. The top 40% started at $69,564 and the top 30% at $91,224. A return at the top 1% line therefore had about 12.6 times the AGI of a return at the median, a Walnut calculation from the two thresholds.

Those percentiles describe tax returns, which include single people, married couples and heads of household side by side. That is one reason the IRS median sits well below the Census median household income of $87,460, which counts everyone living in a home together. The middle-class income statistics page covers the range around those middle values.

The top 1% covers a very wide range. The top 0.1% of returns, 153,076 of them, started at $3,100,950 of AGI in tax year 2023, and the top 0.01%, 15,308 returns, started at $16,086,174 (IRS SOI). The top 0.001%, just 1,531 returns, started at $78,617,933.

The top 0.1% reported 10.1% of all AGI, about half of the top 1%'s total, and paid 19.0% of all federal income tax. The top 0.001% alone reported 2.1% of all AGI. Average AGI in that smallest group was about $207 million per return, against about $10 million for the top 0.1%, both Walnut calculations from the IRS totals.

Thresholds at the very top swing with the stock market because so much of that income is realized capital gains. The top 0.1% floor was $3,775,593 in 2021, $3,271,387 in 2022 and $3,100,950 in 2023.

The 1,530,764 returns in the top 1% reported $3,134,629 million of AGI in tax year 2023 (IRS SOI). Divided by the number of returns, that is an average of about $2.05 million per return, a Walnut calculation. The average is far above the $675,602 entry point because a small number of returns at the top report very large incomes.

The same arithmetic gives an average of about $392,000 for returns between the top 1% and top 5% lines, about $222,000 for returns between the top 5% and top 10%, and about $24,500 for the bottom half. Across all returns the average AGI was about $99,300, while the bottom 99% averaged about $79,600. On those figures the average top 1% return reported about 26 times the AGI of the average return in the bottom 99%.

EPI, a research organization, reached a similar ratio with a different method: in its 2018 report The new gilded age, families in the top 1% earned an average of $1,316,985 in 2015, 26.3 times the $50,107 average of the bottom 99%.

The top 1% of returns reported 20.6% of all AGI in tax year 2023, down from 22.4% in 2022 and the second straight annual decline (Tax Foundation, from IRS data). The top 5% reported 36.4%, the top 10% 47.6% and the top quarter 68.5%.

The bottom half of returns reported 12.3% of AGI, $1.87 trillion out of a national total of nearly $15.2 trillion (IRS SOI). The Tax Foundation notes that the bottom half's share had generally declined through 2020 and has recovered slightly since, to its highest level since 2006.

Total AGI rose by $445 billion from 2022 to 2023 even though about 725,000 fewer returns were filed, according to the Tax Foundation's summary.

The top 1% paid $823.4 billion in federal income tax in tax year 2023, 38.4% of the $2.14 trillion total (IRS SOI). Their average tax rate, total income tax divided by AGI, was 26.3%, and the average top 1% return paid $537,909 (Tax Foundation).

The top 10% paid 70.5% of all federal income tax and the top half paid 96.7%. The bottom half paid 3.3%, at an average rate of 3.7%. The overall average rate for all filers was 14.1%, down from 14.5% in 2022. Filers between the 10th and 5th percentiles, with AGI from $187,608 to $272,209, paid an average rate of 14.2%.

The top 1%'s share of tax fell from 40.4% in 2022 and a peak of 45.8% in 2021, and was 33.2% in 2001. These figures cover the federal income tax only, not payroll, state or sales taxes. Brackets and rates are covered on the tax bracket statistics page.

Wages made up a minority of top 1% income. The top 1% reported $1.09 trillion of wages and salaries in tax year 2023, about 35% of their AGI, and 10.8% of all wages reported on individual returns (IRS SOI Table 4.3, Walnut calculations from the table's totals). 1,289,748 of the 1,530,764 top 1% returns reported wages.

Investment and business income are far more concentrated. The top 1% reported $692.6 billion of net capital gains, 73.3% of the national total, and $813.7 billion of net partnership and S corporation income, 66.7% of the total. They also reported 48.7% of all qualified dividends. Capital gains alone were about 22% of top 1% AGI.

That mix explains why the top 1% share moves with markets. In 2021, when the Tax Foundation says capital gains realizations reached a 40-year high, the top 1% share of AGI jumped to 26.3%.

The top 1% share of AGI has moved between about 16% and 26% since 2001 (IRS SOI). It was 17.4% in 2001, rose to 22.9% in 2007, fell to 17.2% in 2009 after the financial crisis, and reached 26.3% in 2021 before falling back to 20.6% in 2023. The bottom half's share fell from 14.4% in 2001 to 12.3% in 2023.

The top 1% threshold more than doubled in current dollars, from $306,635 in 2001 to $675,602 in 2023. In the IRS's inflation-adjusted series (1990 dollars), the threshold rose from $226,299 to $289,834, a real increase of about 28%, a Walnut calculation. The top 10% threshold rose from $96,151 to $187,608 in current dollars.

An older IRS table of returns with positive AGI goes back to 1986, when the top 1% started at $118,818, reported 11.3% of AGI and paid 25.8% of income tax (IRS SOI Table 1). That table covers a slightly different set of returns, so it shows the direction of change but does not line up exactly with the 2001-2023 series.

The Census Bureau measures income by household, counting everyone who lives together. In 2025 the lowest fifth of the 137.1 million US households had income below $35,800, the second fifth below $68,600, the middle fifth below $110,300 and the fourth fifth below $182,400 (Census table H-1). Households with $354,000 or more were in the top 5%.

The Census does not publish a top 1% household threshold in these tables. The top 5% line of $354,000 is the highest cutoff it reports, and its Income in the United States: 2025 report gives the 90th percentile as $261,300 and the median as $87,460. The average income statistics page covers the median in more detail.

Census income is money income before taxes, reported in a survey, the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement. IRS AGI comes from tax returns and includes realized capital gains, which make up a large part of income at the very top, so the two sources rank people on different income measures.

Households in the top 5% had mean income of $594,500 in 2025, and the highest fifth averaged $331,800 (Census table H-3). The middle fifth averaged $88,250 and the lowest fifth $19,100.

The top 5% received 23.5% of all household income in 2025, and the highest fifth received 52.4% (Census table H-2). The lowest fifth received 3.0%. In 1967, the first year of the series, the top 5% received 17.2%, the highest fifth 43.6% and the lowest fifth 4.0%.

After adjusting for inflation, mean income of the top 5% rose from $221,300 in 1967 to $594,500 in 2025, an increase of about 169%, while mean income of the lowest fifth rose about 52%, from $12,600 to $19,100. Both are Walnut calculations from the Census Bureau's figures in 2025 dollars.

A household at the 90th percentile had income of $261,300 in 2025, 13.06 times the $20,010 of a household at the 10th percentile (Census P60-289). That ratio was 12.74 in 2024, and the Census Bureau found the change not statistically significant. Income at the 90th percentile rose 1.7% between 2024 and 2025, while income at the 10th percentile did not change significantly.

The ratio of the 90th percentile to the median was 2.99, and the ratio of the median to the 10th percentile rose 3.5%, from 4.22 to 4.37. The Gini index, a measure of inequality from 0 (perfect equality) to 1, was 0.490 in 2025, not statistically different from 2024.

After federal and state income taxes, credits and payroll taxes, the 90th percentile household had $201,600 and the median household $76,060. The post-tax Gini index was 0.448, 8.7% lower than the pretax figure, and the post-tax 90th-to-10th ratio was 10.01.

For individual workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes earnings percentiles each quarter. In the third quarter of 2026, the top 10% of the 122.2 million full-time wage and salary workers earned $2,919 or more a week, and the top quarter earned $1,908 or more (BLS Table 5). The median was $1,232 and the bottom 10% earned $634 or less.

Multiplied by 52 weeks, the 90th percentile is about $151,800 a year and the median about $64,100, Walnut calculations. Median weekly earnings rose 1.5% from a year earlier, while consumer prices rose 3.5% over the same period (BLS).

BLS figures cover the usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers. They leave out the self-employed and investment income, and the published table stops at the 90th percentile, so it cannot identify a top 1% of earners.

Education moves the whole distribution. Among full-time workers age 25 and over with an advanced degree, the 90th percentile was $4,249 a week in the third quarter of 2026, against $1,941 for high school graduates with no college and $1,457 for workers without a high school diploma (BLS). The highest-earning 10% of men with advanced degrees made $4,985 or more a week, and the highest-earning 10% of women with advanced degrees made $3,572 or more.

Across all full-time workers, the 90th percentile was $3,253 a week for men and $2,610 for women. By race and ethnicity it was $3,850 for Asian workers, $2,991 for White workers, $2,104 for Black workers and $2,094 for Hispanic or Latino workers.

The income needed to be in the top 1% varies widely by state. The latest state-level estimates from a research source are EPI's, for 2015: the national threshold was $421,926, Connecticut's was the highest at $700,800 and Mississippi's the lowest at $254,362 (EPI, The new gilded age). New Jersey ($588,575), Massachusetts ($582,774), New York ($550,174) and California ($514,694) followed Connecticut, and the District of Columbia's threshold was $598,155.

Thirteen states plus the District of Columbia had thresholds above the national line. At the metro level, the Jackson, Wyoming-Idaho area had the highest threshold at $1.7 million; at the county level, Teton County, Wyoming had the highest at $2.25 million. In New York, the top 1% earned an average of 44.4 times as much as the bottom 99%, the widest gap of any state.

EPI found that half of all income received by the national top 1% went to families in five states: California (17.44%), New York (12.31%), Texas (8.54%), Florida (7.89%) and Illinois (4.58%). The figures are a decade old and in 2015 dollars, and national thresholds have risen considerably since.

The top 1% by income and the top 1% by wealth overlap but are different groups. In the Federal Reserve's Distributional Financial Accounts, the 1% of households with the most wealth held 32.5% of all household net worth in the second quarter of 2026, about $60.3 trillion. The 1% of households with the highest incomes held 25.2%, or $46.9 trillion, up from 16.6% in 1989.

The top 1% by income held 39.6% of all corporate equities and mutual fund shares. On the income side, the top 1% of tax returns reported 20.6% of AGI in 2023, so wealth at the top is more concentrated than income.

The Fed's 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances shows the same link from another angle. Families in the top 10% by usual income had median income of $387,200 and median net worth of $3,669,900 in 2025 dollars. The wealth inequality statistics and millionaire statistics pages cover wealth thresholds and shares.

An income percentile calculator compares one income with a published distribution and reports the share of people below it. The answer depends on which distribution is used. The three main US sources are the IRS percentile tables (per tax return, AGI), the Census CPS tables (per household or per person, pretax money income) and the BLS weekly earnings tables (per full-time employee, wages only).

The same income can rank very differently across them. $200,000 is above the IRS top 10% line of $187,608 for tax returns (IRS SOI), but below the Census 90th percentile of $261,300 for households (Census). On the BLS weekly measure, $200,000 a year is about $3,846 a week, above the $2,919 line for the top 10% of full-time workers.

The published tables also have gaps. IRS and Census tables give a set of cutoffs rather than every percentile, so calculators fill in between them using microdata or interpolation. Calculators that report a top 1% household figure usually derive it from Census or Fed survey microdata, because the Census historical tables stop at the top 5%.

The unit of measurement changes the answer. IRS figures rank tax returns, so a two-earner couple filing jointly is one unit and a single person is another. Census figures rank households, and BLS figures rank individual employees. EPI's 2015 state figures rank tax units it calls families, using IRS data (EPI).

The income definition matters too. AGI includes realized capital gains, and the top 1% reported 73.3% of all net capital gains in 2023, while BLS counts wages only. Timing differs as well: the newest IRS percentile data are for 2023, the newest Census data for 2025, and BLS data for the third quarter of 2026. Thresholds from different sources are not interchangeable.

A top 1% income in the IRS data is $675,602 or more of AGI on one tax return, and the top 10% starts at $187,608. Much of the income at the very top comes from capital gains and business income, which rise and fall with markets, so the top 1% share and threshold can change sharply from one year to the next.

For people who hold investments in a brokerage account, Walnut, an AI investing app, can read a connected account and show how those holdings are doing. The statistics on this page describe the US income distribution; they are not advice on what anyone should earn, save or invest.