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Income measures money received over a period; net worth measures assets minus debts at a point in time. The “top 1%” cutoff is therefore different for each measure—and depends on who is being counted, how the measure is defined, and the year and geography.
Income is a flow; net worth is a stock
Income is money received during a period, commonly a calendar year. It answers: how much came in? Net worth is the value of assets minus debts on a particular date. It answers: what is left after liabilities are subtracted? Wealth can be negative, as the U.S. Census Bureau explains.
The measures are related but not interchangeable. A high income can help someone accumulate assets or pay down debt, but it does not establish how much wealth they have already built. Someone may rank highly by current income while having comparatively little net worth; another person may have substantial wealth but modest current income.
“Top 1%” needs a population and a definition
A percentile is a rank within a specified group, using a specified measure. The 99th-percentile income threshold is not the 99th-percentile net-worth threshold. Nor is there one universal U.S. “top 1%” figure: a meaningful cutoff must identify the geography, reference year, dollar basis, population unit, and what counts as income or wealth.
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- Population unit: A family, household, individual, or tax return can produce different rankings. The Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) describes family finances; IRS percentile tables classify individual income-tax returns.
- Income definition: Usual or total income in a family survey is not the same measure as adjusted gross income (AGI) on a tax return.
- Wealth definition: The assets and liabilities included, and the date they are valued, affect the result.
- Time and dollars: A survey year, the year income was earned, and the base year for inflation-adjusted dollars can differ.
For those reasons, an IRS AGI cutoff and a wealth-survey threshold should not be presented as if they were directly comparable. An IRS study of administrative and survey data shows that thresholds shift when researchers change income concepts and population units; its historical results are useful for understanding the methodological issue, not as current cutoffs.
What the available U.S. figures show—and what they do not
The Federal Reserve’s 2022 SCF report provides useful context, but its selected percentile table reports the 90th percentile, not the top 1%. The figures below are not 99th-percentile thresholds.
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| Measure and source | Reported figure | What it represents |
|---|---|---|
| Usual income, Federal Reserve 2022 SCF report | $245,400 | 90th percentile of family usual income; 2022 dollars. Not the top-one-percent cutoff. |
| Net worth, Federal Reserve 2022 SCF report | $1,938,000 | 90th percentile of net worth; 2022 dollars. Not the top-one-percent cutoff. |
| Household wealth, U.S. Census Bureau brief on 2023 wealth | $1,806,000 | 90th percentile; 2023 dollars, using SIPP-based estimates. Not the top-one-percent cutoff. |
The SCF is a triennial survey of family finances. Its 2022 report compares the 2019 and 2022 survey waves; income refers to the year before each survey, while net worth is measured in the survey. That timing difference matters when interpreting changes across the two measures.
The Census Bureau’s July 2025 brief estimates household wealth at the end of 2023 using 2024 SIPP public-use data. Its household unit is based on people occupying a housing unit, and its wealth estimates include households with negative wealth. The Census measure excludes equity in pension plans and the value of home furnishings, so it is not identical to every other wealth measure.
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These 90th-percentile examples illustrate why a source, unit, definition, and year belong beside every number. They do not establish the top-one-percent cutoff. The Federal Reserve’s selected SCF table does not display a 99th-percentile income-and-net-worth pair, and a cutoff should not be extrapolated from the 90th percentile.
How to make a valid comparison
- Choose the question. Decide whether you want to rank annual income or wealth on a particular date; do not treat one as a proxy for the other.
- Match the population. Compare family with family, household with household, or tax return with tax return. If sources use different units, label the mismatch rather than presenting the values as equivalent.
- Match the definition. Check whether income means survey-reported usual income, total income, or tax-return AGI. For wealth, check which assets and debts are counted.
- Match the time basis and dollars. State the income year or wealth valuation date, and whether dollars are nominal or inflation-adjusted (including the base year).
- Use the source’s actual percentile. Verify that the figure is the 99th percentile if describing the top 1%. A 90th-percentile figure is context, not a substitute.
The Federal Reserve’s Distributional Financial Accounts provide quarterly estimates of wealth shares by percentile group. They reconcile Financial Accounts balance sheets with SCF distributional data, interpolate between SCF surveys, and forecast beyond the latest survey. They can help track trends, but they are constructed estimates—not a new household-level survey threshold.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Can someone be top 1% in income but not wealth?
Yes. Because the rankings measure different things, a person or family can fall into the top 1% by income without falling into the top 1% by net worth, or vice versa. The answer depends on the relevant population and the definitions used for each ranking; income alone does not reveal a household’s assets, debts, or accumulated wealth.
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