The nation’s wealth
We hope this Chartr email finds you at least a little richer than the first one we sent 4 years ago — according to the latest edition of a triennial survey from the Federal Reserve, the median net worth of US households has soared some 37% from 2019-22 to reach ~$193k.
Meanwhile, the same survey found that median incomes in America have risen a comparatively modest 3% in the same period, making the record-breaking rate of rising riches even more stark, with property and stock market success, stimulus packages, and Covid savings driving the wealth surge.
**…Broadly speaking**
The median net worth of US families — how much they have in assets after accounting for debt — is up 78% since the first Fed survey in 1989. The median net worth for the top 10% of households hit a whopping $3.79 million, while the 75th-89.9th percentile’s wealth crossed the seven-figure mark for the first time. Conversely, a typical household in the poorest quartile of America reported just ~$3,400 of net wealth.
Interestingly, the nation’s riches are increasingly concentrated in the hands of college graduates. In 1989, separate Fed data showed that college graduates held ~50% of the nation’s wealth — by the end of 2022, that figure had climbed to 73%. On the other hand, younger generations have seen their share of the wealth shrink: in 1989, the under-40s group had 12.9% of total wealth, a figure that's nearly halved since, reaching just 6.6% at the end of last year.
