The latest release of estimates from the Distributions of Household Economic Accounts reveals that in the second quarter, income inequality reached an all-time high since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, with average disposable income declining for households with the lowest income (-5.7%) and the youngest age group (-2.6%). Inflationary pressures had a negative impact on net saving, regardless of their demographic or economic characteristics, as cost-of-living increases outweighed growth in disposable income.
The results in this release focus on the changes in average disposable income, consumption, and net saving across households with different demographic and economic characteristics, including age group and income quintile; a measure of economic inequality that ranks households by income, from lowest to highest, and then divides them equally into five groups. Households are grouped by age according to the age of the major income earner. It is important to recognize that not all households, even those with similar characteristics, necessarily experience the same economic situations. Unless otherwise stated in the text below, comparisons over time are based on the second quarter of 2022 relative to the same quarter of 2021.
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