Net worth by age in the United States
What American households actually hold at every age — the medians and averages from the Federal Reserve's own survey, estimated 75th/90th/99th percentiles, and the reason those two headline numbers disagree by a factor of four.
Published July 25, 2026 · data: Survey of Consumer Finances 2022 (2022 dollars)
The table most people are looking for
Every three years the Federal Reserve runs the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), the most careful public measurement of what US households own and owe. The 2022 edition, published in late 2023, is the current one. Net worth here means everything a household owns — home equity, retirement accounts, investments, vehicles, businesses — minus everything it owes.
| Age of household head | Median net worth | Mean net worth |
|---|---|---|
| under 35 | $39,000 | $183,500 |
| 35–44 | $135,600 | $549,600 |
| 45–54 | $247,200 | $975,800 |
| 55–64 | $364,500 | $1,566,900 |
| 65–74 | $409,900 | $1,794,600 |
| 75 or older | $335,600 | $1,624,100 |
The median is the middle household: half of the bracket holds less, half holds more. The mean is the arithmetic average, and it runs three to five times higher in every bracket because wealth is concentrated — a handful of very rich households pull the average far above the typical experience. If you want to know how you compare to a typical person your age, use the median column. The mean mostly tells you how much wealth the top of the bracket holds.
Estimated percentiles by age
The Fed publishes medians and means but not a full percentile table by age. The estimates below come from fitting a log-normal distribution to each bracket's published median and mean — the same method the WorthParty calculator uses for its "among your peers" comparison. A fit like this is reliable to within a few percentage points through the middle of the distribution and gets looser at the extreme top, so read the 99th-percentile column as an order of magnitude, not a threshold.
| Age bracket | ≈75th percentile | ≈90th | ≈99th |
|---|---|---|---|
| under 35 | $128k | $372k | $2.34M |
| 35–44 | $419k | $1.16M | $6.65M |
| 45–54 | $756k | $2.07M | $11.68M |
| 55–64 | $1.15M | $3.25M | $19.37M |
| 65–74 | $1.31M | $3.71M | $22.33M |
| 75 or older | $1.11M | $3.27M | $20.89M |
Reading the table: a 40-year-old household with $419,000 sits at roughly the 75th percentile of its bracket — three in four households that age hold less.
What actually moves the numbers, decade by decade
- Under 35 — the debt decade. A median of $39,000 reflects student loans offsetting early savings, and few homeowners. The bracket's wide spread (its 90th percentile is nearly ten times its median) is mostly about who bought a home or joined a high-paying industry early.
- 35–44 — the first compounding decade. The median more than triples to $135,600. This is the decade home equity starts accumulating and earlier retirement contributions begin doing visible work.
- 45–54 — peak earnings. Median $247,200. Earnings typically peak in this bracket, mortgages are part-paid, and portfolios have had two decades to grow.
- 55–64 — the pre-retirement peak build. Median $364,500, with the mean crossing $1.5 million. Catch-up contributions and maximum home equity land here.
- 65–74 — the high-water mark. The median peaks at $409,900. Most households enter retirement at their lifetime wealth maximum.
- 75 and older — the drawdown. Median $335,600. Retirement spending, medical costs, and gifts to family begin drawing balances down — by design, not failure.
Three honest caveats
- Households, not individuals. SCF counts households; a couple's combined wealth is one observation. Comparing your individual net worth to these figures flatters the table slightly.
- 2022 dollars. Asset prices have moved since the survey window; the next SCF (2025 survey, publishing ~2026–27) will shift every row.
- Averages hide shape. Two brackets with identical medians can contain very different lives. Percentiles are the honest lens, which is why the calculator leads with them.
To see where your own number lands — by age, by country, and against all 5.5 billion adults worldwide — the WorthParty calculator runs entirely in your browser; nothing you enter is transmitted anywhere.
Sources
- Federal Reserve — Changes in U.S. Family Finances 2019–2022 (SCF report)
- Survey of Consumer Finances — data and documentation
- WorthParty methodology — how the percentile fits work
Educational content, not financial advice. Figures are US-household survey data and fitted estimates. ← WorthParty calculator · Privacy