The median Bay Area household made $128,500 in 2023
The Bay Area’s 90th percentile household income was 16.3 times the 10th percentile income in 2023
The Bay Area's median household income (adjusted for inflation) increased by 18% from 2010 to 2023
Introduction
How much are Bay Area households making each year?
Household income is a key indicator of economic trends, Bay Area residents’ monetary well-being, and the region’s standard of living. Household income is determined not only by trends in wage levels, but also by how the overall compositions of households change. In addition to salary or wage increases, household income grows when additional household members join the workforce, which often aligns with times of economic prosperity. Conversely, household income typically shrinks when household members retire from the workforce.
Regional Performance
Household incomes have risen and fallen in sync with the expansion and contraction of the region’s economy over the past two decades.
Household income in the Bay Area declined during the Great Recession from 2008 to 2011. However, during the decade between 2010 and 2020, the region experienced great economic growth, with median household income growing by 22% after adjusting for inflation. Between 2012 and 2020, inflation-adjusted median household income grew at an average rate of 2.8% annually. During the COVID-19 pandemic the region experienced its largest annual income decline of 4% between 2020 to 2021, but as of 2023, it has subsequently recovered somewhat.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the median Bay Area household income (adjusted for inflation) fell by 4% from 2020 to 2021
Since its recent dip in 2021, the median Bay Area household income (adjusted for inflation) has increased by 0.5% as of 2023
Historical Trend For Median Household Income
Regional Distribution
The gap between high- and low-income households has widened over time.
While inflation-adjusted median household income increased by 18% between 2010 and 2023, examining income trends by percentile tells a different story. In fact, the income gap between high- and low-income households has widened. From 2010 to 2023, inflation-adjusted incomes for the highest-income households (represented by the 90th percentile household income) grew by 30%, or $91,500, while the lowest-income households (represented by the 10th percentile household income) saw their incomes grow by only 4%, or $889. While overall median household income decreased by 4.2% between 2020 and 2021 due to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 10th percentile household income saw the largest decrease with a 10.7% decline, while the 90th percentile household income actually saw an increase of 1.5%. In 2023, the Bay Area’s 90th percentile household income was 16.3 times the 10th percentile income, up from 12.5x in 2005.
From 2010 to 2023, the 90th percentile Bay Area household income grew by 30%, or $91,500
From 2010 to 2023, the 10th percentile Bay Area household income grew by only 4%, or $889
Historical Trend for Household Income by Percentile
Local Focus
The region’s highest-income households continue to be concentrated in Silicon Valley.
Santa Clara and San Mateo counties have the highest household incomes among Bay Area counties. Median household incomes in 2023 for these counties were approximately $154,600 and $152,900 — over $50,000 greater than median household incomes in the region’s two lowest-income counties of Solano and Sonoma. The concentration of high-income households in Silicon Valley is also reflected in the city-level data, with many of the wealthiest cities in the Bay Area located in Silicon Valley.
Growth in household income over the past couple of decades varies greatly across the region. The County of San Mateo is the county with the largest growth in median household income from 2010 to 2023, with an inflation-adjusted growth of 26%. In contrast, median household income in Solano County has remained relatively stable, growing by less than 5% from 2010 to 2023 after adjusting for inflation.
In 2023, the median household income in Santa Clara County was $154,600, the highest of any Bay Area county
In 2023, the median household income in Solano County was $100,900, the lowest of any Bay Area county
Median Household Income by Neighborhood (2023)
Sources & Methodology
PUMS microdata (one row per household) is used to directly estimate regionwide and county-level household income percentiles. PUMS data is available from 2005 to present. PUMS data is offered in 1-year and 5-year (beginning 2009) vintages; this indicator uses 1-year PUMS data.
PUMS data is available nationwide; the geographic units are Public Use Microdata Areas (PUMAs), "non-overlapping, statistical geographic areas that partition each state or equivalent entity into geographic areas containing no fewer than 100,000 people each." All of the nine Bay Area counties are populous enough to warrant at least one PUMA per county, so we can use PUMS data to get county-level results.
Data for sub-county geographies (cities and census tracts) is derived from the American Community Survey (ACS) Table B19013 5-year estimates.
Income has been adjusted for inflation to 2023 dollars using Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).
The Census Bureau only reports median household income up to $250k, a value which we refer to as the top-coded value. Income values presented here that are above the top coded value are best estimates based on inflation-adjusted data from prior years. More specifically, for any year where the unadjusted income is above the top coded value, we use the adjusted income of the most recent previous year that had an unadjusted income below the top coded value.
U.S. Census Bureau: Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS)
2005-2023
U.S. Census Bureau: American Community Survey
Table B19013 (2005-2023; median household income by place of residence)
Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Price Index
2005-2023