US household income 2024: the national median, and each state's Top-20% Line
Two numbers get confused in most coverage of household income. The national median is one figure, published from one survey. The income needed to be a high earner where you live is a different figure, published from a different survey, and it ranges by nearly a factor of two across states.
National figures: Census Bureau P60-286, released . State figures: ACS 2024 1-year, retrieved . Reviewed by kgenots, Editor.
Median US household income was $83,730 in 2024, against $82,690 the year before - up $1,040, a change the Census Bureau reports as not statistically significant. Reaching the top 20% of households takes $120,032 in Mississippi and $238,418 in District of Columbia.
The national median moved. The state tables did not.
The national figure above comes from the CPS ASEC, which the Census Bureau publishes each September. The state figures come from the American Community Survey, and the 2025 ACS 1-year estimates have no announced release date. The Bureau has tied the delay to a Commerce Department order on disclosure avoidance that narrows which privacy-protection methods it may use.
The practical effect for anyone writing about state income: the national number is current, the state distribution is not, and the two cannot be mixed into one year's picture. ACS 2024 remains the most recent published state-level distribution. What the Census Bureau has said about the delay →
The next CPS ASEC release is scheduled for . This page will be superseded by a 2025 edition rather than edited, so a citation to it keeps pointing at 2024 figures.
Top-20% Line by state, ACS 2024
The Top-20% Line is the household income needed to enter the highest-earning fifth of households in a given state - the 80th-percentile cut-point the Census publishes per state. In all 51states and DC it sits above the national median, which is what makes “above average” a weaker claim than it sounds: no state's top-20% threshold falls below the national median.
| Rank | State | Top-20% Line | State median | vs US median ($83,730) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | $238,418 | $109,707 | +31% |
| 2 | Massachusetts | $211,835 | $104,828 | +25% |
| 3 | New Jersey | $207,697 | $104,294 | +25% |
| 4 | California | $203,870 | $100,149 | +20% |
| 5 | Maryland | $203,754 | $102,905 | +23% |
| 6 | Connecticut | $195,798 | $96,049 | +15% |
| 7 | Washington | $195,549 | $99,389 | +19% |
| 8 | Hawaii | $191,329 | $100,745 | +20% |
| 9 | Colorado | $187,914 | $97,113 | +16% |
| 10 | Virginia | $186,315 | $92,090 | +10% |
| 11 | New Hampshire | $185,431 | $99,782 | +19% |
| 12 | New York | $183,128 | $85,820 | +2% |
| 13 | Alaska | $173,347 | $95,665 | +14% |
| 14 | Utah | $172,511 | $96,658 | +15% |
| 15 | Rhode Island | $169,468 | $83,504 | -0% |
| 16 | Minnesota | $166,625 | $87,117 | +4% |
| 17 | Illinois | $166,524 | $83,211 | -1% |
| 18 | Delaware | $162,553 | $87,534 | +5% |
| 19 | Oregon | $161,201 | $85,220 | +2% |
| 20 | Texas | $160,370 | $79,721 | -5% |
| 21 | Georgia | $156,990 | $79,991 | -4% |
| 22 | Arizona | $156,723 | $81,486 | -3% |
| 23 | Nevada | $154,972 | $81,134 | -3% |
| 24 | Vermont | $154,530 | $82,730 | -1% |
| 25 | Pennsylvania | $154,496 | $77,545 | -7% |
| 26 | Florida | $152,815 | $77,735 | -7% |
| 27 | Maine | $149,013 | $76,442 | -9% |
| 28 | North Carolina | $147,599 | $73,958 | -12% |
| 29 | Kansas | $145,444 | $75,514 | -10% |
| 30 | Wyoming | $144,915 | $75,532 | -10% |
| 31 | North Dakota | $144,640 | $77,871 | -7% |
| 32 | Idaho | $144,630 | $81,166 | -3% |
| 33 | Nebraska | $144,136 | $76,376 | -9% |
| 34 | Wisconsin | $143,991 | $77,488 | -7% |
| 35 | Montana | $142,504 | $75,340 | -10% |
| 36 | South Carolina | $142,452 | $72,350 | -14% |
| 37 | Michigan | $141,650 | $72,389 | -14% |
| 38 | Ohio | $141,437 | $72,212 | -14% |
| 39 | South Dakota | $140,442 | $76,881 | -8% |
| 40 | Tennessee | $140,387 | $71,997 | -14% |
| 41 | Missouri | $139,067 | $71,589 | -15% |
| 42 | Iowa | $138,132 | $75,501 | -10% |
| 43 | Indiana | $137,197 | $71,959 | -14% |
| 44 | New Mexico | $135,881 | $67,816 | -19% |
| 45 | Alabama | $132,641 | $66,659 | -20% |
| 46 | Louisiana | $129,469 | $60,986 | -27% |
| 47 | Oklahoma | $128,877 | $66,148 | -21% |
| 48 | Kentucky | $128,753 | $64,526 | -23% |
| 49 | Arkansas | $123,186 | $62,106 | -26% |
| 50 | West Virginia | $120,082 | $60,798 | -27% |
| 51 | Mississippi | $120,032 | $59,127 | -29% |
Sources and caveats
National median and its year-over-year comparison: US Census Bureau, Income in the United States: 2024 (P60-286), from the CPS ASEC. The Bureau reports the 2024 change as not statistically significant, and the Gini index change as not significantly different.
State Top-20% Lines and medians: ACS 2024 1-year, tables B19080 and B19013. The Census Bureau recommends the ACS for state-level income and recommends multi-year CPS ASEC averages for state-to-state comparison, which is why the national and state figures here come from different surveys rather than one. Full methodology.
The two surveys are not directly comparable: they differ in sample, reference period and income definition, so a state median from the ACS and the national median from the CPS ASEC should not be differenced to claim a state is “X above the nation.” The percentage column is shown for orientation only. The 95th-percentile cut-point is top-coded at $250,001, which is why this page uses the 80th percentile.