Which of the following groups in the United States has the highest median family income?

• A. Asian Americans
• B. African Americans
• C. Hispanic Americans
• D. White Americans

Answer: (A)

Understanding the median helps explain this result: the median family income is the middle point of the income distribution, so it reflects what a typical family earns, without being thrown off by a few very wealthy outliers or many very low earners. Asian American families tend to have higher educational attainment on average and are more concentrated in high-paying professional and technical fields. Those factors lift the typical, or median, income for the group above the medians of other groups. It’s important to remember this is a general national pattern and hides a lot of variation within subgroups and across regions, but as a broad comparison, Asian American families sit at the highest median income.