Household income

What It Means

Household income is the total income of the people who live in one home, usually measured over a year. The Census Bureau counts the income of the householder and everyone else in the household age 15 and older, before taxes. Other agencies and lenders define it their own way, so the IRS figure used for the health insurance premiumInsurance premiumThe amount you pay to keep an insurance plan, such as health insurance, in force, usually monthly, quarterly or yearly, whether or not you use any care. See more tax credit, for example, counts different people and different income.

How It Sounds at Home

• "Put our combined income on the form."
• "Do they want gross or take-home?"
• "With both of us working, we're just over the median."

The Breakdown

Worked example. A household of four: two working adults, a 17-year-old with a weekend job, and a 1010,000 stepsA popular daily step goal that began as the name of a 1960s Japanese pedometer; later studies find health benefits begin well below it. See more-year-old.

That's about $7,392 a month before taxes, a little above the Census Bureau's 2025 median of $87,460. The 10-year-old adds nothing to the total, since the Census count starts at age 15.

What the result means. Household income measures what comes in before taxes and deductions, which makes it useful for comparing one household with another. A budgetBudgetA plan for a set period, usually a month, that lists the money you expect to receive and how you'll spend or save it. See more works better from take-home payTake-home payThe money that actually reaches you from a paycheck after taxes and other deductions are taken out, also called net pay or net income. See more, the money that actually lands in your accounts.

Which definition applies

Good to Know

For 2025, the Census Bureau puts real median household income at $87,460, up 2.6% from 2024 and the highest on record in data going back to 1967, in its report "Income in the United States: 2025," published in September 2026 from the Current Population Survey. The same report gives median household income after taxes as $76,060. Half of households have more than a median and half have less. For the health insurance premium tax credit, the IRS uses its own definition: modified adjusted gross income, which starts from the adjusted gross income on your tax return and adds back certain income that isn't taxed, such as tax-exempt interestInterest rateThe yearly percentage a lender charges for borrowing money, not counting fees; the APR adds certain fees to show a fuller cost. See more, plus the same for any dependents who must file a return of their own. When a form asks for household income, read its instructions for who and what to include, and ask a tax professional if a credit depends on it.

Related Terms and Categories

• Gross income

  The full amount you earn before taxes and other deductions come out. For federal taxes, it's all income you receive unless a law exempts it.

• Net income

  What's left after everything is taken out: on a paycheck, pay after taxes and deductions; for a business, profit after all expenses and taxes.

• Take-home pay

  The money that actually reaches you from a paycheck after taxes and other deductions are taken out, also called net pay or net income.

• Dual income household

  A household where two adults, usually a couple, both earn income from work, so the budget runs on two paychecks.

• Cost of living

  What it costs to keep a certain standard of living, such as housing, food and transportation, in a given place at a given time.

• Budget

  A plan for a set period, usually a month, that lists the money you expect to receive and how you'll spend or save it.

Household money and budgeting