Household Income Stable in July 2015

The Census Bureau will release 2014 household income statistics on September 16. Thanks to the efforts of Sentier Research, however, we already know how the median household is doing through July 2015. And the answer is: the median household is doing better than in the aftermath of the Great Recession, but still has some catching up to do.

According to Sentier's monthly tracking of the Current Population Survey, median household income in July 2015 was $55,218. This figure was not statistically different from the June median, after adjusting for inflation. The July 2015 median was 2.0 percent higher than the July 2014 median, however, and 6.5 percent above the $51,872 median of August 2011—the low point in Sentier's household income series.

But median household income in July 2015 was still 0.8 percent below the median of June 2009, the end of the Great Recession. It was 2.6 percent below the median of December 2007, the start of the Great Recession. It was 3.8 percent below the median of January 2000. The Household Income Index for July 2015 was 96.2 (January 2000 = 100.0).

Source: Sentier Research, Household Income Trends: July 2015