2021 Average Income by State plus Median, Top 1%, and All Income Percentiles

In this post, find household income by state and individual income by state statistics for the United States in 2021. Find all your favorite summary statistics: average income by state for households or individual workers, plus the median income and top 1% income.

Income is pre-tax (gross) income earned between January and December 2020.

We also have aggregated research on household income and individual income.

Household Income by State in 2021

Household is the more important income measure, as total pooled household resources are the best input to total quality of life. While individual income is useful (and, often, interesting!) to compare, household is the more important measure.

Find our dedicated household income percentile post here.

Average Household Income by State

Average income is an important benchmark, but it is limited by the skew due to high earning households. In the United States, the average household income was $96,955.04 in 2021.

(That would be the 65th household income percentile on its own.)

Here's the average household income by state in 2021:

Median Household Income by State

Median household income means that half of all households earn more and half earn less – not accounting for households that make the exact median. It's the superior statistic... although the average is more popular when people ask questions.

Across the United States, the median household income was $67,463.00 in 2021. Here is the median household income by state:

Top 1% Household Income by State

The top 1% of income percentiles is roughly where our accuracy runs out – there aren't as many respondents up here, and there's more income dispersion. However, it's a good approximation for where the truly affluent household incomes begin per state.

In 2021, the overall top 1% threshold started at a household income of $504,420. Of course, take the exact numbers with a grain of salt, but here are the top 1% household income thresholds per state:

Household Income by State Methodology

All household income data comes from the United States Census Bureau's Annual ASEC survey. I use the harmonized data from the University of Minnesota. You can find more details in the average household income post.

Sarah Flood, Miriam King, Renae Rodgers, Steven Ruggles, J. Robert Warren and Michael Westberry. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Current Population Survey: Version 9.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS, 2021. https://doi.org/10.18128/D030.V9.0

Household Income Data Quality and Households Per State

This table shows the number of households in the survey per state, plus the number of households implied by those samples for 2021:

Individual Income by State in 2021

While household income is the more important division, individual income shows how much one person earns – and is often more interesting. 

You can find more information on my worker screen in the individual income statistics post, but it's pretty generous.

Average Individual Income by State

The average individual income in America in 2021 was $63,214.03. As I mentioned in the household income section, median is a better measure – high earners skew the average. The average individual income would be roughly the 67th percentile of individual incomes.

Here's the average individual income by state (along with D.C.):

Median Individual Income by State

Once again, I'll repeat: median is the superior statistic (if less popular!). In 2021, the overall median individual income was $44,225. Here's how median individual incomes looked per state in 2021:

Top 1% Individual Income by State

And of course, we also need to show the top 1% individual incomes by state.

As with household income, be skeptical of these numbers – there aren't as many earners up here, and earnings are more spread out than with the rest of the distribution (still, they should be close).

In 2020, the top 1% individual income countrywide started at $357,552. Here are the top 1% individual income thresholds by state:

Individual Income by State Methodology and Estimated Households

Like for household incomes, I use microdata from the ASEC survey harmonized by the University of Minnesota to compute individual incomes.

Sarah Flood, Miriam King, Renae Rodgers, Steven Ruggles, J. Robert Warren and Michael Westberry. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, Current Population Survey: Version 9.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS, 2021. https://doi.org/10.18128/D030.V9.0

Here, I only count "workers." For more on the worker screen, see our average individual income article.

Individual Income by State Data Quality and Estimated Workforce

As with households, it's good to know how many samples you're looking at for individual workers. This table lists the number of samples plus the estimated number of workers per state.

Diving Deep on State Incomes

Hard to visualize these distributions in your head? Yeah – there's a lot to parse in this one. Check out the income percentile by state calculator for help. You can compare states head to head for household income and individual income and choose to show or hide states to see the info you need.

And one more caveat: while income by state is a decent measure to disaggregate income stats, it still comes up short with "superstar" ("superexpensive"?) cities.

For example, an income in Humboldt County, California would not go as far in the San Francisco Bay Area. Check out the income percentile by city post for a deeper dive on metro areas.

See past data:

• 2020
• 2019