Personal income increased $86.2 billion (0.3 percent at a monthly rate) in December, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Disposable personal income (DPI)—personal income less personal current taxes—increased $75.7 billion (0.3 percent), and personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased $91.0 billion (0.4 percent).
This report for December 2025, originally scheduled for January 29, 2026, was rescheduled due to the October–November 2025 government shutdown.
Personal outlays—the sum of PCE, personal interest payments, and personal current transfer payments—increased $90.2 billion in December. Personal saving was $830.8 billion in December, and the personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 3.6 percent.
The increase in current-dollar personal income in December primarily reflected increases in personal current transfer receipts and compensation.
The $91.0 billion increase in current-dollar PCE reflected an increase of $98.5 billion in spending on services and a decrease of $7.5 billion in spending on goods.
Real PCE increased $11.5 billion (0.1 percent at a monthly rate) in December.
From the preceding month, the PCE price index for December increased 0.4 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index also increased 0.4 percent.
From the same month one year ago, the PCE price index for December increased 2.9 percent. Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index increased 3.0 percent from one year ago.
| Personal Income and Related Measures |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November | December | |||
| Current-dollar personal income | 0.4 | 0.3 | ||
| Current-dollar DPI | 0.3 | 0.3 | ||
| Real DPI | 0.1 | 0.0 | ||
| Current-dollar PCE | 0.4 | 0.4 | ||
| Real PCE | 0.2 | 0.1 | ||
| PCE price index | 0.2 | 0.4 | ||
| PCE price index, excluding food and energy | 0.2 | 0.4 | ||
For definitions, statistical conventions, information on updates to personal income and outlays (PIO), links to related tables, and more, visit “Additional Information”
Improvements to the PIO News Release
BEA’s ongoing modernization and streamlining of news release packages includes improvements beginning with today’s PIO news release. The news release text has been modified to include links to BEA’s online Interactive Data Tables. News release tables in PDF and Excel format will no longer be provided beginning with the February 2026 estimate on April 9, 2026. This change will reduce duplication, increase efficiency, and point users directly to the most complete data.
Next release: March 13, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. EDT
Personal Income and Outlays, January 2026
Technical Notes
Changes in personal income and outlays for December
The December increase in personal income primarily reflected increases in personal current transfer receipts and compensation.
- Personal current transfer receipts increased $38.4 billion, reflecting increases of $23.0 billion in other current transfer receipts and $15.4 billion in government social benefits to persons.
- The increase in other current transfer receipts reflected a settlement paid by a domestic electric utility to U.S. households to compensate for claims of personal injury, property damage, and other losses related to the 2023 Maui wildfire.
- The increase in government social benefits was led by Medicare.
- Compensation increased $31.0 billion, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Current Employment Statistics (CES) data.
- Private wages and salaries increased $19.0 billion, reflecting an increase of $20.2 billion in services‑producing industries and a decrease of $1.2 billion in goods-producing industries.
- Government wages and salaries increased $5.3 billion.
Revisions to personal income
Estimates have been updated for October and November, reflecting updated BLS CES data on employment, hours, and earnings.
| Personal Income and Outlays Release Dates in 2026 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2025 | February 20, 2026 | |||
| January 2026 | March 13, 2026 | |||
| February 2026 | April 9, 2026 | |||
| March 2026 | April 30, 2026 | |||
| April 2026 | May 28, 2026 | |||
| May 2026 | June 25, 2026 | |||
| June 2026 | July 30, 2026 | |||
| July 2026 | August 26, 2026 | |||
| August 2026 | September 30, 2026 | |||
| September 2026 | October 29, 2026 | |||
| October 2026 | November 25, 2026 | |||
| November 2026 | December 23, 2026 | |||
| All releases at 8:30 a.m. | ||||
Related Data Tables
For the statistics highlighted in this release, as well as historical time series for these estimates, see the following data tables in BEA’s Interactive Data Application.
Note. With the next release of PIO, today’s data will be superseded, and the links above will reflect the latest data. The original data featured in this release can then be accessed in BEA’s Data Archive.
