I read in this week's Time magazine that the median household income in the US is $48,201. (This means half the households in the US bring in less than this, and the other half bring in more). I was surprised by the number. I somehow thought it would be more because it's talking about household income, rather than personal income. If you were to have guessed where the median was, where would you have thought? Are you surprised by the number?

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I would have thought it would be higher...

I guess I'm not surprised. Think of how many household are single earner or have 2 minimum wage earners. There are plenty of people in the city here who know how to play the system and the gov't pays for everything! The city of Richmond, Viginia has over 60% of it's residents on gov't assistance I read the other day. So households like that bring the median way down and I guess it's not as visible in certain areas.

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~*JAMI*~ GO RED SOX! WORLD CHAMPIONS!

I think what makes the number so surprising is that people live like they make a lot more.

I think this is an excellent point!

It's a bit surprising. I guess those people who live in the states with a higher cost of living (certain parts of california and new york, for example) make more and those in lower cost of living areas (louisiana, texas, oklahoma) make less?? I've often wondered what people make in the higher areas. I would think they would have to make over $200K a year to afford those high priced houses. In our area of texas, I have a feeling most people make more than that average because of all our refineries and chemical plants going through expansions and such, they are paying high dollar for all the workers they can get! Of course, my idea of high dollar might be different that most, i'm not sure. I never know what to think.
I guess I would have thought it would be higher, but considering all those that live off the government, like a previous poster said, that would bring the average down, wayyyy down.

I just think that we would be so RICH if we made $48,000 a year. That sounds like a lot to me...

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Debbie 3 years
Sadie 16 months

I thought it would be higher, more like $60,000.

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~Happiness is a large family~

I agree with this also. I also agree that the cost of living varies so greatly from one area of the country to the other. It can even vary greatly in the same state! We couldn't live on DH's salary in a larger city, but we do just fine here.

I know when we were DINKs it was 63K a year and that was east now that we are just around 40K a year its more of a challenge. There are some Average states too. I mean look at my state (Washington) we tend to balance our selves the west side Puget sound area is higher COL Over 400K is the median house price. The east side of the state is very rural. My cousin and I paid the same abount for our homes mine west hers east. Mine 1050 sqft, 50 year old on a dinky lot. Hers 3 times the size on acres.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006