The chart illustrates data on US households based on their annual income across three different years: 2007, 2011, and 2015.
Overall, households in all income brackets experienced an upward trend during this period, except for those earning between $50,000 and $74,999, whose income remained unchanged. Notably, families earning between $75,000 and $99,999 a year consistently ranked at the bottom of the list.
In 2007, households with annual incomes under $25,000 numbered just over 25 million, a figure considerably higher than those earning between $50,000 and $74,999 (21 million) and $75,000 to $99,999 (14 million), but lower than those earning between $25,000 and $49,999 (27 million) and over $100,000 (29 million). Four years later, the number of the wealthiest households declined to 26 million, while the next wealthiest category dropped to 14 million. In contrast, the lower income brackets saw noticeable increases of around 3 million each. The only group that remained unchanged during this period was the middle-income households.
By 2015, the number of affluent households surged to 33 million, while the two lowest earning categories fell slightly by about a million each, finishing around 26 million. There was a moderate increase in the number of households in the second highest earning bracket, which ended the period at precisely 15 million.