November 7, 2011

After a full year 2020 reading in negative territory (-2.8%) driven by the impact of COVID-19, meaning that the US economy shrank on a nominal per capita basis in 2020, the SEI continued to accelerate into 2022, with a YTD Q3 year-on-year growth reading of 8.9%, and a 2-year read from YTD Q3 2020 of 5.2%. These numbers are based upon U.S. GDP release estimates through 11/1/2021, including the Advance estimate of U.S. Q3 GDP.

The 8.9% change in the YTD Q2 2021 Staying Even Index (SEI) is based upon reported YTD year-on-year nominal GDP growth of 9.4% and estimated annual population growth of 0.5%.

These projections suggest that individuals whose year-to-date 2021 total income from all sources (after-tax wages and other income) grew by more than 8.9% from the same period in 2020 expanded their adjusted share of the U.S. economy, and those whose total income grew by less than this fell behind compared to the prior year. The two-year read from 2019 suggests individuals whose incomes have not grown by 5.2% since 2019 have fallen behind, and those that have experience income growth greater than that are getting ahead.

StayingEven.com will publish updates to these figures as GDP and population estimates are revised. We are dedicated to helping individuals understand what income growth is required to keep up in the U.S. Economy.

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To find out whether you have gotten ahead, try our Staying Even Calculator, and to learn more about the Index, visit us at StayingEven.com. You can also follow us @stayingeven on Twitter.