Motio Research reports their initial estimate of U.S. median household income for February 2026 is $87,630, a $360 (or 0.4%) increase from their initial January 2026 estimate of $87,270.
The firm's estimates are based on income data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau through its monthly Current Population Survey. This survey is conducted during the week containing the 12th day of the month following the month in which its data applies. Motio Research adjusts its raw monthly estimates to account for the effects of seasonality and inflation, presenting its results in the form of an index with the median household income of January 2010 assigned a value of 100. The initial value of the firm's U.S. Real Median Household Income Index for February 2026 is 119.2.
The following screenshot of Motio Research's interactive chart shows how this index has changed from January 2010 through February 2026:
Motio's survey-based estimates indicate the pace of growth of median household income has slowed since the end of 2025. The cash and free travel incentives the Trump administration offered to illegal immigrants likely contributed to the exit of large numbers of the lowest income earners in this demographic, whose departure effectively boosted the nation's median household income.
Analyst's Notes
Political Calculations produces median household income estimates using other original data sources that complement Motio Research's survey-based estimates. Because of the ongoing delays in official aggregate wage and salary data being reported, we'll present our estimate for January 2026 in this edition. We expect fully catch up with Motio Research's estimates with our February and March 2026 estimates in early May 2026 when the wage and salary data for both will become available.
Political Calculations' official estimate for median household income in January 2026 is $86,506, which is $575 (or 0.67%) higher than the $85,931 we projected for December 2025. The following chart presents our estimates of U.S. median household income, both adjusted for inflation (blue) and not-adjusted for inflation (red) for each month from January 2000 through December 2025.
Political Calculations' January 2026 estimate is $764 (or 0.9%) below Motio Research's initial estimate of $87,270 for January.
The momentum for most of that gain came from upward revisions of aggregate wage and salary income data. The BEA made significant upward revisions to each of its estimates from July 2025 (+0.41%) through December 2025 (+0.67%). The largest revisions were for October and November 2025, which tied with a +0.73% increase over the previous estimates for these months.
For the latest in our coverage of median household income in the United States, follow this link!
Image credit: U.S. Census Bureau. We modified the public domain image to make it more generally applicable beyond reporting the median household income from 2022.