Median household income by household size

I’ve been looking at various demographic breakdowns of income in the USA. Here’s an interesting one from the Census Bureau, based on household size (A household is everyone who lives in the same house or apartment unit, so household size is not exactly the same things as family size, since for example two unrelated people sharing a 2-bedroom apartment would count as one household, whether or not they had any relationship with each other beyond shared housing expenses. Still it’s a pretty close approximation to family size).

Median income by household size (2012):

One person households: $26.2K

2: $56,727K

3: $64,614K

4: $78,177K

5: $71,185K

6: $67,634K

7 or more people: $66,612K

Notes:

(1) The low figure for one-person households is probably a product of a high percentage of very old and very young adults in this cohort.

(2) The nearly 10% decline in income seen in five as opposed to four-person households, and the further decline among households of six or more people, suggests something about what is considered an appropriate family size among upper-middle and upper class people these days, i.e., having two kids is fine, three is considered a “big” family, and four is basically declasse.