---
title: "Top vs Bottom Income Quartile Spending Gap"
slug: the-divergence
summary: "Top- minus bottom-quartile card spending growth was -13.9 percentage points in June 2026, compared with -10.5 percentage points in June 2025"
category: "Warning Signs"
unit: percentage_points
frequency: monthly
direction: bidirectional
latest_value: -13.9
latest_period: "2026-06"
trend: falling
last_updated: "2026-08-11T00:00:00Z"
source: "Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker, data from Affinity Solutions; Raj Chetty, John Friedman, Nathaniel Hendren, Michael Stepner and the Opportunity Insights Team, \"The Economic Impacts of COVID-19: Evidence from a New Public Database Built Using Private Sector Data\""
source_url: https://tracktherecovery.org/
canonical_html: https://americandefault.org/indicators/the-divergence/
citation_apa: "Kilburn, R. (2026). Top vs Bottom Income Quartile Spending Gap [Data set]. American Default Research. https://americandefault.org/indicators/the-divergence/"
citation_chicago: "Kilburn, Ross. 2026. \"Top vs Bottom Income Quartile Spending Gap.\" American Default Research. https://americandefault.org/indicators/the-divergence/."
citation_mla: "Kilburn, Ross. \"Top vs Bottom Income Quartile Spending Gap.\" American Default Research, 2026, americandefault.org/indicators/the-divergence/."
---

# Top vs Bottom Income Quartile Spending Gap

Also tracked as The Divergence.

> Top- minus bottom-quartile card spending growth was -13.9 percentage points in June 2026, compared with -10.5 percentage points in June 2025

## Current Reading

As of June 2026, Top vs Bottom Income Quartile Spending Gap is **-13.9 percentage points** (falling).

Opportunity Insights Affinity card data, top-quartile minus bottom-quartile cumulative spending growth, percentage points

## What Changed

- Top-quartile minus bottom-quartile card spending growth was -13.9 percentage points in June 2026, compared with -10.5 percentage points in June 2025.
- Since January 2020, card spending by people in the bottom-income-quartile ZIP codes has grown 13.9 percentage points more than in the highest-income ZIP codes.

## Recent Values

| Period | Value |
|--------|-------|
| 2026-06 | -13.9 pp |
| 2026-05 | -9.3 pp |
| 2026-04 | -11.3 pp |
| 2026-03 | -9.8 pp |
| 2026-02 | -10.4 pp |
| 2026-01 | -12.8 pp |
| 2025-12 | -15.3 pp |
| 2025-11 | -9.3 pp |
| 2025-10 | -9.3 pp |
| 2025-09 | -9.9 pp |
| 2025-08 | -9.9 pp |
| 2025-07 | -11.2 pp |

## Historical Context

- Peak since 2020: **2.1 percentage points** in February 2020
- Low since 2020: **-15.3 percentage points** in December 2025
- Post-pandemic average (2020-01 – 2024-12): **-9.6 percentage points**

## Methodology

This indicator carries monthly observations and is interpreted as moving in both directions against household distress, with no single end of the range reading as the distressed one. Source: Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker, data from Affinity Solutions; Raj Chetty, John Friedman, Nathaniel Hendren, Michael Stepner and the Opportunity Insights Team, "The Economic Impacts of COVID-19: Evidence from a New Public Database Built Using Private Sector Data".
Automation: semi-automated scheduled pull from the public CSV; publication remains subject to validation.

## Source

Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker, data from Affinity Solutions; Raj Chetty, John Friedman, Nathaniel Hendren, Michael Stepner and the Opportunity Insights Team, "The Economic Impacts of COVID-19: Evidence from a New Public Database Built Using Private Sector Data" — [https://tracktherecovery.org/](https://tracktherecovery.org/)

Data retrieved: 2026-08-11T00:00:00Z

## Related Indicators

- [the-squeeze](https://americandefault.org/indicators/the-squeeze/)

## Machine-Readable Endpoints

- HTML page: https://americandefault.org/indicators/the-divergence/
- JSON: https://americandefault.org/api/indicators/the-divergence.json
- CSV: https://americandefault.org/api/downloads/the-divergence.csv
- BibTeX: https://americandefault.org/citations/the-divergence.bib
- RIS: https://americandefault.org/citations/the-divergence.ris

## Citation

**APA 7th**

    Kilburn, R. (2026). Top vs Bottom Income Quartile Spending Gap [Data set]. American Default Research. https://americandefault.org/indicators/the-divergence/

**Chicago (author-date)**

    Kilburn, Ross. 2026. "Top vs Bottom Income Quartile Spending Gap." American Default Research. https://americandefault.org/indicators/the-divergence/.

**MLA 9th**

    Kilburn, Ross. "Top vs Bottom Income Quartile Spending Gap." American Default Research, 2026, americandefault.org/indicators/the-divergence/.

Use **American Default Research** as the institutional name in source lists, bibliographies, and press citations. **American Default** is the brand and URL form. **American Distress Index (ADI)** is the product name for the national composite score.