Average Income in the United States (1913-2006)

I have updated my most popular graph Average Income in the United States. It now includes data through 2006 (in 2006$). I also added recessions from National Bureau of Economic Research {Click on the image to take a closer look}

Data from Emmanuel Saez's web site

[tags]Average Income, United States, Recessions[/tags]

Income of United States, Japan, India, China, and Indonesia since 1500

I am comparing the GDP per Capita of the United States with Japan, India, China, and Indonesia over the last 500 years. (GDP per Capita for each country is in 1990 international Geary-Khamis dollars, calculated from purchasing power parities (PPPs) of currencies and average prices of commodities.) {Click on the image to take a closer look}

Data estimates for population from Angus Maddison Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Economics, University of Groningen.

[tags]income, GDP per Capita, United States, China, India, Indonesia, Japan[/tags]

Comparing Income Series

I have been working on a graph to show how different US income data series compare to one another. I have plotted 8 income series from 4 different sources, including average and median income. Also I used the CPI-U to adjust each series to 2005 dollars instead of 2002$, 2003$ and 2004$. Click on the graph to take a closer look:

Data sources for the income series can be found at:

• Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) GDP per Employed Person A good stand-in for worker productivity
• Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Average Household Includes non-cash income
• Census Average Family Income
• Census Average Household Income
• Census Median Family Income
• Census Median Household Income
• Saez Average Tax Units with cap gains (Excel file at Emmanuel Saez's web site)
• Saez Average Tax Units without cap gains (Excel file at Emmanuel Saez's web site)

Some of the differences in these series is due to the unit of measurement:

1. Family is defined as two or more related people living together
2. Households include families, singles, non-related people living together.
3. Tax units are singles, married filling jointly, head of household.

Also over time, family and household sizes have been getting smaller.

If you see a problem with the graph you can post a comment. I plan to refine this graph over the next few weeks.

Addendum: 10/7/2006 Reformatted some of the labels and fixed the y-axis label

[tags]average income, median income, US income, US income distribution[/tags]

Average Income in the United States

Updated with 2006 data: Average Income in the United States (1913-2006)

Here is a graph of average income (1913-2004) that I have been working on for a while. I am trying to incorporate into the graph economic and world events that would have affected the U.S. economy, making the assumption that the avg income is also affected by these events. The graph shows income that includes capital gain and income that does not include capital gains. After you finish looking at historical average income you should check out my series of graphs on Income Distribution to understand why average income doesn't tell the whole story.

{Click on the graph to take a closer look}

Data from Emmanuel Saez's web site Addendum: 8/29/2006 Added Visualizing Economics logo to the graph; Reformatted some of the labels and legend Also I have turned on the comments for this post so if you see a problem with the graph you can let me know. I will be updating it, as needed.

[tags]average income[/tags]

Changes in U.S. Total Income

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has a report that looks at incomes across all households. Above, I have plotted the total income for the United States.

Below, I have plotted the average income for the United States. In both cases income drops after 2000.