Personal Income
Personal income measures the total pre-tax income Americans receive from all sources — wages and salaries, proprietors' and rental income, interest and dividends, and government transfers like Social Security and unemployment insurance. Reported monthly by the BEA, it is the foundation of spending capacity.
After inflation: +0.9% (August 2026, CPI-adjusted)
Personal Income YoY %
- Income ($, SAAR)
- $27.63T
Next release: Oct 29, 2026
Latest reading
As of August 2026, Personal Income (Personal Income YoY %) stands at 4.3% — down from 4.5% the prior reading, 27.7 pp below the March 2021 record of 32.0%. After inflation, personal income rose 0.9% over the year to August 2026. Income growth underwrites consumer spending and GDP; rapid gains can also feed demand-pull inflation if they outrun productivity. Use the year-over-year rate to smooth monthly volatility — above 5% is strong, below 1% is a concern. Watch for transfer-payment spikes (stimulus, expanded benefits) that can distort the headline, and adjust for inflation to see real purchasing power. Series history runs from 1993 to present.
Sources, methodology & freshnessBEA via FRED (PI), monthly, seasonally adjusted annual rate · Monthly, with every releaseData as of 2026-08-01 · Open ↓Close ↑
Full history
Year-over-year %
Income level ($)
Total US personal income at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate, in dollars — the aggregate the year-over-year growth rate is built from.
Real income growth
Personal income after CPI inflation, against the same period a year earlier. Below zero, it lost ground to prices. BEA deflates income with the PCE price index; this view uses CPI-U, which usually runs a little hotter.
Deflated by CPI-U (BLS), matched by month; the latest months appear once CPI is published.
Methodology & data
Personal Income is sourced from BEA via the Federal Reserve's FRED service (BEA via FRED (PI), monthly, seasonally adjusted annual rate). We pull the complete history, chart it on a monthly basis, overlay SPY for context, and generate a dated plain-English reading from the latest release — with no smoothing or adjustment beyond what the chart legend states.
Every reading is stamped with its release date. Latest observation 2026-08-01; site refreshed 2026-10-22. Maintained and reviewed by Yuriy Matso; see our methodology for the standards every series on the site is held to.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Personal Income?
Personal income measures the total pre-tax income Americans receive from all sources — wages and salaries, proprietors' and rental income, interest and dividends, and government transfers like Social Security and unemployment insurance. Reported monthly by the BEA, it is the foundation of spending capacity.
How do you read Personal Income?
Income growth underwrites consumer spending and GDP; rapid gains can also feed demand-pull inflation if they outrun productivity. Use the year-over-year rate to smooth monthly volatility — above 5% is strong, below 1% is a concern. Watch for transfer-payment spikes (stimulus, expanded benefits) that can distort the headline, and adjust for inflation to see real purchasing power.
Where does the Personal Income data come from?
BEA via FRED (PI), monthly, seasonally adjusted annual rate. We chart the full history and publish a dated, plain-English reading with every release; the raw series is downloadable as CSV at /data/indicators/personal-income.csv.
How often is Personal Income updated?
Personal Income is a monthly series from BEA, refreshed here as soon as a new release posts to FRED.
After inflation: +0.9% (August 2026, CPI-adjusted)
Personal Income YoY %
- Income ($, SAAR)
- $27.63T
Next release: Oct 29, 2026