Real median household income under Barack Obama

What the household in the exact middle of the income distribution received in a year, after inflation.

Over 2009-01-20 to 2017-01-19, measured in 2024 C-CPI-U Dollars:

Term average

70,890 2024 C-CPI-U Dollars

At the start

70,070 2024 C-CPI-U Dollars

At the end

76,710 2024 C-CPI-U Dollars

Change

+6,640 2024 C-CPI-U Dollars

Low

67,400 2024 C-CPI-U Dollars (2012-01-01)

High

76,710 2024 C-CPI-U Dollars (2017-01-01)

Coverage

100% (8 observations)

Reading this series over a presidential term

One observation per year. A four-year term has about four points, dated by the income year rather than the survey year, so the coverage filter and the attribution lag both matter more here than on a monthly series.

Money income before taxes: it excludes taxes paid and credits received, employer-paid health insurance, food and housing assistance, and capital gains. A 2013 redesign of the income questions breaks the comparison across that year. When Census changes the inflation basis it restates the entire history, so dollar values from an older vintage of this series will not match the current one.

These are the observed values over the window above, and nothing more. This site does not say which direction is better, and none of this is a claim that Barack Obama caused the number to move.

What Real median household income measures · Barack Obama: the whole record · Chart it · Compare with another president · The source at FRED