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Net Worth Distribution
About This Indicator
What Is Net Worth Distribution?
How household net worth, assets minus debts, is split between the wealthiest 1%, the next 9%, the next 40%, and the bottom half. Quarterly since 1989, from the Federal Reserve. It leaves out Social Security, which for many in the bottom half outweighs all else they own.
Why Does It Matter?
Wealth carries a family through a lost job, pays for college, and passes to heirs; it is far more concentrated than income. Because debts are subtracted, a young family can earn well and hold almost none.
Can Politics Influence It?
Taxes on capital, estates, and income, housing and credit rules, and the response to each crash shape the split, alongside asset prices no branch controls.
Key Idea
Prices, not saving, drive much of the movement: the middle 40% hold mostly homes and retirement savings, the top 1% mostly stocks and businesses, so a stock rally tilts shares to the top and a housing boom tilts them back. Debt magnifies it: in the housing bust the bottom half's share fell to about half a percent by 2010, as houses lost value and mortgages did not.
Source: FRED (Fed DFA). The Net Worth Shares series above, with WFRBL99T999309, WFRBLN09304, and WFRBLN40302.
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