This Pew Research Center report looks at Americans’ views of economic inequality, including what factors they think contribute to it and who they believe should be responsible for reducing inequality. It also explores trends in income and wealth inequality.

Pew Research Center does research to help the public, the media and decision-makers understand important topics. This analysis builds on our previous work on economic issues.

The analysis of Americans’ views of economic inequality is based primarily on a Pew Research Center survey of 5,166 U.S. adults conducted Aug. 24-30, 2026. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel. The survey is designed to represent the views of all U.S. adults.

Here are the survey questions used for this report, the detailed responses and the survey methodology.

In addition to survey data, the report also examines the trends in the typical income and wealth of lower-, middle- and upper-income households using data from the U.S. Census Bureau and other standard government sources.

Most Americans say there’s too much economic inequality in the United States these days. To understand how people’s financial circumstances have changed in recent decades, we looked at trends in income and wealth for lower-, middle- and upper-income households since 2000.

Income and wealth have grown for each group. But the gains have been greatest for upper-income households, leading to increased economic inequality.

The median income for upper-income households increased 25% between 2001 and 2024 (from $222,800 to $278,800). Incomes for middle- and lower-income households grew less over that period – 22% and 17%, respectively.

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