Income of the Superrich in 2005

ADDED NEW VERSION 2/10/2009

Recently the CBO published a supplement to their Historical Effective Federal Tax Rates: 1979 to 2005 report to include a breakdown of top 1% into smaller percentiles. I took the data for income and created this visualization. It is comparing the minimum income for each percentile to the average income in that percentile.

UPDATED VERSION {Click on the image to take a closer look}

Top Income Earners magnifying glass

ORIGINAL VERSION {Click on the image to take a closer look}

Top Income Earners magnifying glass

Data from Congressional Budget Office

[tags]United States, High Income[/tags]

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4 Responses to “Income of the Superrich in 2005”


  • Neat graph. I think it should be reversed left-to-right, and the average income put in the middle of the bar (only really relevant for the highest two segments). The bar could use its width to denote “number of households”; then the area of the bar could be a comparative measure of the total income of that group.

    I’ve been reading Tufte, so these things jump out at me now =)

  • AT first I didn’t understand it until I realized that that last bit of punctuation in each number was a comma, not a decimal point. The lower figure on the minimum income for the topmost income bracket is missing a 0. It should be 8,579,000, yes?

  • Great, awesome work, but could you substitute is by income pyramid, it would be much better understood.
    Your graphically-statistical-art-work on
    the Visualization of Global Economics 1500 AD – 2000 AD tread is here
    http://www.perfecteconomy.com/f/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=382&p=1004#p1004
    PEOPLE For Mathematically Perfected Economyâ„¢ (PFMPEâ„¢) : mathematically perfected economyâ„¢ (MPEâ„¢) is the singular integral solution to 1) inflation & deflation, 2) systemic manipulation of the cost or value of money or property, & 3) inherent, irreversible multiplication of debt in proportion to a vital circulation, engendering inevitable systemic failure at a finite system lifespan defined by an inevitable, terminal sum of insoluble debt. Mathematically Perfected Economyâ„¢ is every prospective debtor’s right to issue their promise to pay, free of extrinsic manipulation, adulteration, or exploitation of that promise, or the natural opportunity to make good on it.

  • I didn’t realize that bottom edge of the top 1% was $126,000. However since the bottom edge of the top 0.1% one can almost feel the pain of the top bankers who will be limited to a mere $500,000.

    Here is my blog comment on the above graph.
    http://feldsparia.blogspot.com/2009/02/bottom-of-top-1-of-us-households-not.html

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