Household Income Distribution in the US: A Widening Gap Between Top and Bottom Percentiles

High-income households in the US capture a large share of national income, with the top 20% taking home 52.2% in 2024, up 8.7 percentage points from 1974. The bottom 20% received just 3.1%, further shrinking over the period. The top 5% of earners saw their share of national income grow by 6.6 percentage points, while the middle fifth's share declined.