Document Type
Report
Publication Date
12-2019
Abstract
Introduction: This report studies income distribution in the United States between 1967 and 2018 by race and ethnicity.
Methods: The data were derived from the US Census Bureau's Historical Income Tables: Income Inequality
Results: The upper 5% of households controlled 17% of total household income in 1967 and 23% in 2018. The upper 20% of households accounted for 44% of all income in 1967 and 52% in 2018. Economic growth, which has been impressive in the period under consideration, did not result in rising household incomes across the social hierarchy. Between 1967 and 2018 the upper 5% of income-earning households experienced a 125% rise in real incomes using 2018 inflation-calculated dollars. This may be contrasted with the 31% increase in real incomes among the bottom 20% of all households.
Discussion: After a period of declining inequality from the aftermath of the second World War through the 1960s, it is now apparent that income distribution has already returned to the pre-Great Depression era pattern of extreme concentration.
Included in
Arts and Humanities Commons, Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons, Income Distribution Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, Latin American Studies Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons
Comments
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Citation information: Bergad, Laird W. (2019). The Concentration of Household Income in the United States by Race/Ethnicity, 1967 - 2018. New York, NY: Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center.