This report presents estimates on income, earnings, and inequality in the United States for calendar year 2022, based on information collected in the 2023 and earlier Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplements (CPS ASEC) conducted by the Census Bureau.
The income estimates in the main sections of this report are based on the concept of money income, which is pretax and does not account for the value of in-kind transfers. Appendix A provides a detailed explanation of how income is measured using the CPS ASEC. Estimates of post-tax income and inequality are included in Appendix B.
To adjust for changes in the cost of living over time, historical income and earnings estimates in this report are expressed in real or 2022 dollars. This year, the Census Bureau started using the Chained Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (C-CPI-U), produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to inflation adjust income estimates from 2000 onward. The Census Bureau continues to use the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers Retroactive Series (R-CPI-U-RS), also produced by the BLS, to adjust income estimates before 2000. The annual index values are available in Appendix A. For more in-depth discussion of the effects of using different inflation indices on household income estimates, refer to Appendix C.
For information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error, and definitions, see https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cps/techdocs/cpsmar23.pdf [PDF - <1.0 MB].
The Census Bureau reviewed this data product for unauthorized disclosure of confidential information and approved the disclosure avoidance practices applied to this release: CBDRB-FY23-0437. To further protect respondent privacy, all estimates in this report have undergone additional rounding. As a result, this year's estimates may differ from previous publications and details may not sum to totals.