consider the explanations for growing inequality in the United States.

Measuring Income Distribution by Quintiles

One common way of measuring income inequality is to rank all households by income, from lowest to highest,

and then to divide all households into five groups with equal numbers of people, known as quintiles. This

calculation allows for measuring the distribution of income among the five groups compared to the total. The

first quintile is the lowest fifth or 20%, the second quintile is the next lowest, and so on. We can measure

income inequality by comparing what share of the total income each quintile earns.

U.S. income distribution by quintile appears in Table 15.5. In 2020, for example, the bottom quintile of the

income distribution received 3.2% of income; the second quintile received 8.1%; the third quintile, 14.0%; the

fourth quintile, 22.6%; and the top quintile, 52.2%. The final column of Table 15.5 shows what share of income
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