how do you calculate household income 
gather all of the gross income of anyone age 15 or older make sure you include any type of income such as wages tips bonuses retirement income and welfare payments social security benefits and others add these together to get the total household income the bottom lineincome is any money that a person earns through work or by selling products and services for most people it refers to individual earnings through work this can come in the form of salary wages tips bonuses and vacation pay this is just one part of household income which the census bureau defines as the gross income of all individuals under the same roof who are over 15 not only does this figure provide a barometer of people s standards of living but it can also be used for other purposes such as assessing risk by lenders you can calculate household income by adding every member s gross income together correction oct 1 2023 this article has been edited from a previous version to clarify that the average household income is the average of everyone divided by a household not the average of all people in one household it has also been edited to reflect that median household income refers to the income of a household at the 50th percentile of a designated demographic area 