Distribution of Personal Income for 2022 and 2021

SUITLAND, Md. – The Bureau of Economic Analysis today released provisional data on the distribution of personal income in 2022, along with full data covering 2021.

The distribution of personal income statistics take one of BEA’s primary economic indicators—U.S. personal income—and measure how it is distributed across households. This provides a way to assess how households share in the nation’s economic growth.

To provide the timeliest possible estimates for 2022, BEA made extrapolations for several income sources where data were unavailable. Because the top 1 percent and top 5 percent income shares are substantially influenced by not-yet-available Statistics of Income source data for 2022, interval ranges – not point estimates – are provided for these estimates.

In December 2022, BEA released provisional data for 2021. The full 2021 data released today incorporate Statistics of Income data for 2021 that were not available last year.

The full data for 2021 and the provisional data for 2022 are available in Excel files on the BEA website, along with a summary file covering 2000-2022 .

This year, for the first time, distribution of personal income statistics are also available in BEA’s Interactive Data Tables.

The statistics build on more than a decade of BEA research by bringing in new sources of data, including demographic surveys, aggregated tax records, and administrative records. BEA first published prototype distribution of personal income statistics in March 2020. Since then, BEA has continued publishing new data and making improvements:

• Distribution of disposable personal income added in 2020.
• Supplemental internationally comparable data added in 2022.
• State distribution of personal income added in October 2023.

Interactive data tables for the national statistics added in December 2023.