Income Survey Questions (With Brackets)

Household income brackets

Household income is the standard for consumer research because spending decisions are usually made at the household level. The brackets themselves are the whole design decision — match them to whatever benchmark you intend to compare against, and never overlap or leave gaps. Put this question at the very end of the survey.

• What was your total household income last year, before taxes?

  Single choice
  Under $25,000$25,000-$49,999$50,000-$74,999$75,000-$99,999$100,000-$149,999$150,000-$199,999$200,000 or morePrefer not to say

  Says household, says before taxes, says the period. All three are load-bearing — leave any of them out and different respondents answer different questions.

• What was your total household income last year, after taxes?

  Single choice
  Under $20,000$20,000-$39,999$40,000-$59,999$60,000-$79,999$80,000-$119,999$120,000 or morePrefer not to say

  Take-home pay is easier for many people to answer accurately than gross, but it is not comparable to published income statistics, which are generally reported before tax.

• How many people does that income support?

  Single choice
  12345 or morePrefer not to say

  Without this, household income is nearly uninterpretable — $80,000 supporting one person and $80,000 supporting five are not the same circumstance.

• How many adults in your household earn an income?

  Single choice
  123 or moreNonePrefer not to say

• Which best describes your household's financial situation?

  Single choice
  We comfortably cover our needs and saveWe cover our needs with a little left overWe just cover our needsWe sometimes struggle to cover our needsWe often struggle to cover our needsPrefer not to say

  A subjective alternative that people answer far more readily than a bracket, and which often predicts behavior better. Use it when you want the signal without the refusal rate.

Personal income and where it comes from

Personal income is the right variable for employment and professional research, where household income muddies the picture with a partner's earnings. Salary alone also understates total compensation in sales, executive, and equity-heavy roles — if that matters to your analysis, ask about the components rather than one number.

• What is your own annual income before taxes?

  Single choice
  Under $30,000$30,000-$49,999$50,000-$74,999$75,000-$99,999$100,000-$149,999$150,000 or morePrefer not to say

• What is your base salary, excluding bonus and equity?

  Single choice
  Under $50,000$50,000-$74,999$75,000-$99,999$100,000-$149,999$150,000-$199,999$200,000 or morePrefer not to say

  Ask base and variable pay separately in compensation research. A single "total comp" figure gets answered inconsistently depending on whether people count unvested equity.

• Which of these do you receive? Select all that apply.

  Select all that apply
  Salary or wagesBonus or commissionEquity or stockSelf-employment incomePension or retirement incomeBenefits or support paymentsInvestment incomePrefer not to say

• How stable is your income month to month?

  Single choice
  Very stableMostly stableIt varies somewhatIt varies a lotPrefer not to say

  Frequently more useful than the amount for anyone freelance or commission-based, and much less sensitive to answer.

• Is your income the main income in your household?

  Single choice
  YesNoWe contribute roughly equallyPrefer not to say

International respondents and currency

Dollar brackets shown to someone earning in rupees or euros produce numbers you cannot use. Ask country first, then either show currency-appropriate bands or ask for an amount plus a currency and convert afterward. Fixed conversion in your own head at analysis time is not good enough — exchange rates move and purchasing power differs anyway.

• Which country do you live in?

  Short text

  Ask before any income question on an international survey, and branch the brackets from the answer.

• Which currency are you answering in?

  Single choice
  USDEURGBPINRCADAUDAnother currency

• What is your approximate annual income in your local currency?

  Short text

  Paired with the currency question above. Open text here is defensible precisely because no single bracket set works across currencies.

• How would you describe your income relative to others in your country?

  Single choice
  Well below averageBelow averageAbout averageAbove averageWell above averagePrefer not to say

  Self-positioning travels across borders where absolute amounts do not, and it sidesteps both currency and purchasing-power problems.

• Does your income figure include employer benefits such as healthcare or pension?

  Single choice
  YesNoNot sure

  Matters enormously when comparing across countries, where the share of compensation delivered as benefits varies wildly.

Keeping the refusal rate down

Expect this question to be skipped more than any other on your survey, and design for it rather than fighting it. Position at the end, an explicit opt-out, a stated reason for asking, and coarse bands all measurably help. Forcing an answer does not — it converts refusals into fabrications you cannot detect.

• Would you rather skip questions about income?

  Single choice
  YesNo

  Offering the exit up front tends to raise honest completion on the questions that follow it.

• What was your household income last year? (broad bands)

  Single choice
  Under $50,000$50,000-$99,999$100,000 or morePrefer not to say

  Three bands. When you only need a coarse split, asking for less gets you a much higher response rate on the split you actually wanted.

• How comfortable were you answering the income question?

  Single choice
  1 - Very uncomfortable23 - Neutral45 - Very comfortable

• May we use your answer in aggregate reporting only?

  Single choice
  YesNo

  Saying what happens to the number is one of the few things that reliably reduces refusal. Only promise aggregate use if that is true.

• Is there anything about your financial situation that would help us understand your answers?

  Long text

Try it live

The same questions, asked one at a time

This is a working form built from the questions above — answer it the way a respondent would, then take it into your own account with one click.

See how conversational forms ask these one at a time →

Frequently asked questions

Should I ask for income as brackets or an exact number?

Brackets, essentially always. An open income field raises refusal sharply, invites joke answers, and delivers precision you will discard when you group the results anyway. Brackets also feel less exposing to the respondent, which is the actual reason they answer at all.

Should I ask for household or personal income?

Household for consumer and lifestyle research, where spending decisions are made jointly; personal for employment, compensation, and professional research, where a partner's earnings would only add noise. Whichever you pick, say it in the question — respondents left to guess will not all guess the same way.

How do I reduce the number of people skipping the income question?

Put it last, make it optional with a visible prefer-not-to-say option, use the coarsest bands your analysis can tolerate, and say in one line why you are asking and that answers are reported in aggregate. If refusal is still high, ask a subjective question about financial comfort instead — people answer it far more readily and it often predicts behavior just as well.