In the first quarter of 2024, almost two-thirds percent of the total wealth in the United States was owned by the top 10 percent of earners. In comparison, the lowest 50 percent of earners only owned 2.5 percent of the total wealth. Income inequality in the U.S. Despite the idea that the United States is a country where hard work and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps will inevitably lead to success, this is often not the case. In 2023, 7.4 percent of U.S. households had an annual income under 15,000 U.S. dollars. With such a small percentage of people in the United States owning such a vast majority of the country’s wealth, the gap between the rich and poor in America remains stark. The top one percent The United States follows closely behind China as the country with the most billionaires in the world. Elon Musk alone held around 219 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. Over the past 50 years, the CEO-to-worker compensation ratio has exploded, causing the gap between rich and poor to grow, with some economists theorizing that this gap is the largest it has been since right before the Great Depression.

Graph and download economic data for Net Worth Held by the Top 0.1% (99.9th to 100th Wealth Percentiles) (WFRBLTP1246) from Q3 1989 to Q1 2025 about net worth, wealth, percentile, Net, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Share of Net Worth Held by the Top 1% (99th to 100th Wealth Percentiles) (WFRBST01134) from Q3 1989 to Q1 2025 about net worth, wealth, percentile, Net, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Net Worth Held by the Bottom 50% (1st to 50th Wealth Percentiles) (WFRBLB50107) from Q3 1989 to Q1 2025 about net worth, wealth, percentile, Net, and USA.

Over ** million individuals residing in the United States belonged to the global top one percent of ultra-high net worth individuals worldwide in 2022. China ranked second, with over **** million top one percent wealth holders globally. France followed in third.

Between December 2019 and 2021, the top one percent of earners accumulated 63 percent of all new wealth worldwide. This is more than six times more wealth than accumulated by the bottom 90 percent over the same time period.

Global wealth distribution Newly generated wealth landing in the hands of the few is not a new story and has been the focus of international development policy for many years. Looking at a regional level, Latin America was the region with the starkest distribution of wealth. In this region, 77 percent of the wealth was held by the richest 10 percent in 2021, and only 0.5 percent held by the poorest 50 percent. At an individual level, around 2.82 billion adults worldwide had a net worth of less than 10,000 U.S. dollars in 2021.

Billionaires In 2021, the highest concentration of billionaires could be found in North America. However, China had the largest number of billionaires in its population in 2022, with most living in Beijing. Looking at wealth distribution amongst billionaires themselves, 20 people had fortunes of 50 billion U.S. dollars or more, but the majority of billionaires had a personal fortune between two and five billion U.S. dollars.

In December 2022, Elon Musk slipped from the top spot of richest people on Earth. The number one spot was taken by French magnate, Bernard Arnault of Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

Data from the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report shows that in 2023 there were just under 30 million millionaires in the US.

In 2024, two of the three richest people in Latin America were Mexicans. The leader of the rank was the Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim, the 14th richest person in the world. Slim had a fortune of 102 billion U.S. dollars, derived from his multiple businesses and investments. At third place was a fellow Mexican businessman, German Larrea, with a fortune of nearly 27.3 billion dollars.

Billionaires' wealth distribution Within each country's economy, there exists a relatively small segment of wealthier individuals who contribute significantly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of their respective countries. In Latin America, Chile stands out for its high concentration of wealth among billionaires, accounting for approximately 16 percent of the GDP. Mexico also exhibits a notable wealth concentration, with billionaires contributing around 12 percent of the country's GDP. Regarding the financial magnitude of these billionaires in Latin America, Mexico leads with an average individual wealth of approximately nine billion dollars, compared to an average wealth per adult of 43,140.
Income inequality In most countries within the region, the GINI Index, which measures income inequality among the population, falls within the range of 40 to 50. Notably, Colombia has the highest level of income inequality in Latin America, at 54.2. As a result of this income inequality, only around 2.8 percent of the population in the region is classified as having a high economic status, while the largest portion of the population consists of non-poor individuals with low incomes, and approximately 281 million people in the region live below the poverty line.

With a net worth of 342 billion U.S. dollars, Elon Musk, the cofounder of seven companies, such as electric car maker Tesla and the rocket producer SpaceX, was the wealthiest man in the world in March 2025. The wealthiest people in the world Marc Zuckerberg, the cofounder of Meta Platforms, came second with a wealth of 235.6 billion U.S. dollars. Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos followed in third. All the 10 richest people in the world were men. Wealth distribution worldwide As of 2022, one percent of people held nearly half of the world's combined wealth. Moreover, 2.8 billion of the world's population hold a combined wealth of less than 10,000 U.S. dollars, compared to 59 million people having a combined wealth of 1 billion dollars or more, underlining the vast inequalities around the world. Where do the most affluent people live? Most millionaires live in the United States, while Hong Konk was the city hosting the largest number of high net worth individuals worldwide. The country with the highest number of billionaires is China.

A dataset listing the richest zip codes in Missouri per the most current US Census data, including information on rank and average income.

New Jersey has the highest rate of millionaires, with 9.76% of households showing a net worth of $1 million or above. That means that 246,058 New Jersey households are millionaires.

Research done by the Credit Suisse Research Institute states that the country with the highest number of millionaires is the U.S., with nearly 30 million millionaires and 17 million people with wealth up to $5 million! To put numbers in perspective, China, Japan, Germany, the U.K., and France, added together, have a total of 17 million millionaires!

A dataset listing the richest zip codes in North Carolina per the most current US Census data, including information on rank and average income.

A dataset listing the richest zip codes in Virginia per the most current US Census data, including information on rank and average income.

A dataset listing the richest zip codes in Puerto Rico per the most current US Census data, including information on rank and average income.

In 2023, just over 50 percent of Americans had an annual household income that was less than 75,000 U.S. dollars. The median household income was 80,610 U.S. dollars in 2023. Income and wealth in the United States After the economic recession in 2009, income inequality in the U.S. is more prominent across many metropolitan areas. The Northeast region is regarded as one of the wealthiest in the country. Maryland, New Jersey, and Massachusetts were among the states with the highest median household income in 2020. In terms of income by race and ethnicity, the average income of Asian households was 94,903 U.S. dollars in 2020, while the median income for Black households was around half of that figure. What is the U.S. poverty threshold? The U.S. Census Bureau annually updates its list of poverty levels. Preliminary estimates show that the average poverty threshold for a family of four people was 26,500 U.S. dollars in 2021, which is around 100 U.S. dollars less than the previous year. There were an estimated 37.9 million people in poverty across the United States in 2021, which was around 11.6 percent of the population. Approximately 19.5 percent of those in poverty were Black, while 8.2 percent were white.

Graph and download economic data for Share of Corporate Equities and Mutual Fund Shares Held by the Top 1% (99th to 100th Wealth Percentiles) (WFRBST01122) from Q3 1989 to Q1 2025 about mutual funds, wealth, equity, percentile, corporate, and USA.

In 2023, by far the highest number of individuals with net assets of at least ** million U.S. dollars worldwide were residing in North America, reaching over ******* people. Asia recorded the second highest number of UHNWIs in the world with over ******* individuals.A small share owns vast sums of wealthThe vast majority of global wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few people. Only *** percent of the global population owns assets worth more than *** million U.S. dollars. The richest people in the world are Elon Mask, Jeff Bezos, and Bernard Arnault. When it comes to women, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers led the ranking of the most affluent women worldwide. The wealth of over ** percent of UHNWIs was self-made. Where UHNWIs live and where they leave Unsurprisingly, as North America is the world region with the highest number of UHNWIs, the United States is the country with the highest UHNWI count. However, Hong Kong, special administrative (SAR) region in China, is the city with the highest number of UHNWIs. Nevertheless, China was the country that recorded the highest outflux of UHNWIs in 2022.

As of August 2024, a combined value of 856 billion U.S. dollars was held by the top five wealthiest billionaires in the United States. According to the source, the five wealthiest billionaires were Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, and Warren Buffett.

In 2022, about 40 percent of adults in Mexico held a net worth under 10,000 U.S. dollars. In contrast, merely 393,000 Mexicans (that is, 0.4 percent of the total) had a net worth of over one million U.S. dollars. Mexico is one of the most unequal countries in Latin America regarding wealth distribution, with 78.7 percent of the national wealth held by the richest ten percent of the population.

The minimum salaryThe minimum wage per day guaranteed by law in Mexico was decreed to increase by 22 percent between 2021 and 2022, reaching 172.87 Mexican pesos in 2022. In the Free Zone located near the northern border the minimum daily wage was raised to 260.34 Mexican pesos.This represented the fourth consecutive incrase since 2019, but could prove to be insufficient to maintain the wellbeing of Mexican workers after the soaring inflation rate registered in 2022 and the economic impact of the COVID-19 in Mexican households. The legal minimum salary has a long history in the North American country, it was first implemented with the approval of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States in 1917. Income inequality in Latin AmericaLatin America, as other developing regions in the world, generally records high rates of inequality, with a Gini coefficient ranging between 38 and 54 among the region’s countries. Moreover, many of the countries with the biggest inequality in income distribution worldwide are found in Latin America. According to the Human Development Report 2019, wealth redistribution by means of tax transfers improves Latin America's Gini coefficient to a lesser degree than it does in advanced economies. Wider access to education and health services, on the other hand, have been proven to have a greater direct effect in improving Gini coefficient measurements in the region.