Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
The median age of a new car buyer is 53. It has always been the wealthier folks purchasing new vehicles.
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True. The median income of a new car buyer has always been well above the national median income. (At least in my lifetime)
Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
Median income has held on.
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Median income is keeping up but that 2nd quintile is increasingly struggling and the middle moves in two directions. "professional" workers with degrees are keeping up or even doing better when adjusted for inflation - especially married couples. Those without degrees (or trades) that work in the service sector are not keeping up with inflation. On average of course - there are always outliers.
Looking at the latest census data (2021) of household income by quintile (spilt into 5 groups), those groupings are:
1st $0 - $28,007
2nd = $28,008 - $55,000
3rd = $55,001 - $89,744
4th = $89,745 - $149,131
5th = $149,132 - Infinite
A household needed to make $286,304 in 2021 to crack the top 5%
There are some pretty strong trends.
AGE:
It is a bell shape.
0 - 25 only 26% are in the 1st and only 5% in the 5th
45-55 is the reverse with a whopping 30% of households in the 5th and only 13% in the 1st.
over 65 sadly 31% are in the 1st and only 12% in the top.
I doubt anyone is surprised that people start out with low income and then steadily rise until they hit the peak earning years between 45 and 55. Then people retire either voluntarily or not and income plummets.
Married vs Single:
Again not surprising
33% of married couples are in the top 5th income quintile and only 11% in the bottom 1st quintile.
Single are the opposite with 36% in the 1st and only 8% in the 5th
Urban vs rural
Inside a metro area is almost a flat even distribution with 19% in the 1st and 21% in the top. Rural has a clear trend with 27% in the 1st and only 11% in the 5th.
Rural areas have a greater percentage of poor people in that 1st quintile (27%) than in a city proper (22%). The burbs have the lowest percentage of 1st (17%) and highest in the 5th (23%)
Number of workers.
The data follows logic - the more people working in a household the more that household makes.
Mean number of earners per quintile
1st = 0.4
2nd = 0.9
3rd = 1.3
4th = 1.7
5th = 2.0
Or to look at it a different way - a whopping 69% of households with 2 or more earners are in the 4th and 5th quintile. 46% of households with only 1 earner are in the 1st and 2nd quintile.
It is really hard to get ahead in the USA as a single person or with one partner staying home instead of working.