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.
