One of Twenty Facts About U.S. Inequality that Everyone Should Know

Intragenerational Income Mobility

Intragenerational income mobility refers to the rate at which a person moves to a higher or lower income level during her or his work career. More than half of those individuals in the bottom income quintile in 1994 remained there 10 years later, and less than 4 percent reached the top quintile.

Relative Mobility Out of the Bottom Income Quintile (individuals age 25 to 44)

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Source: Gregory Acs and Seth Zimmerman. 2008. U.S. Intragenerational Economic Mobility From 1984 to 2004. The Urban Institute. See http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/1001226_intragenerational_economic_mobility.pdf.