https://fred.stlouisfed.org/legal/#copyright-public-domainhttps://fred.stlouisfed.org/legal/#copyright-public-domain
Graph and download economic data for Net Worth Held by the Top 1% (99th to 100th Wealth Percentiles) (WFRBLT01026) from Q3 1989 to Q2 2025 about net worth, wealth, percentile, Net, and USA.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/legal/#copyright-public-domainhttps://fred.stlouisfed.org/legal/#copyright-public-domain
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.
In the first quarter of 2025, 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 was the country with the most billionaires in the world in 2025. Elon Musk, with a net worth of 342 billion U.S. dollars, was among the richest people in the United States in 2025. 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.
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.
In 2023, roughly 1.49 billion adults worldwide had a net worth of less than 10,000 U.S. dollars. By comparison, 58 million adults had a net worth of more than one million U.S. dollars in the same year. Wealth distribution The distribution of wealth is an indicator of economic inequality. The United Nations says that wealth includes the sum of natural, human, and physical assets. Wealth is not synonymous with income, however, because having a large income can be depleted if one has significant expenses. In 2023, nearly 1,700 billionaires had a total wealth between one to two billion U.S. dollars. Wealth worldwide China had the highest number of billionaires in 2023, with the United States following behind. That same year, New York had the most billionaires worldwide.
In the third quarter of 2024, the top ten percent of earners in the United States held over ** percent of total wealth. This is fairly consistent with the second quarter of 2024. Comparatively, the wealth of the bottom ** percent of earners has been slowly increasing since the start of the *****, though remains low. Wealth distribution in the United States by generation can be found here.
Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License information was derived automatically
United States - Share of Total Net Worth Held by the Top 1% (99th to 100th Wealth Percentiles) was 30.80000 % of Aggregate in January of 2025, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Share of Total Net Worth Held by the Top 1% (99th to 100th Wealth Percentiles) reached a record high of 31.10000 in April of 2021 and a record low of 22.50000 in July of 1990. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Share of Total Net Worth Held by the Top 1% (99th to 100th Wealth Percentiles) - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on August of 2025.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/legal/#copyright-public-domainhttps://fred.stlouisfed.org/legal/#copyright-public-domain
Graph and download economic data for Minimum Wealth Cutoff for the Top 0.1% (99.9th to 100th Wealth Percentiles) (WFRBLTP1311) from Q3 1989 to Q3 2022 about wealth, percentile, and USA.
Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License information was derived automatically
United States - Total Net Worth Held by the Top 1% (99th to 100th Wealth Percentiles) was 49396697.00000 Mil. of $ in January of 2025, according to the United States Federal Reserve. Historically, United States - Total Net Worth Held by the Top 1% (99th to 100th Wealth Percentiles) reached a record high of 49457457.00000 in October of 2024 and a record low of 4668012.00000 in July of 1989. Trading Economics provides the current actual value, an historical data chart and related indicators for United States - Total Net Worth Held by the Top 1% (99th to 100th Wealth Percentiles) - last updated from the United States Federal Reserve on September of 2025.
In 2024, there were nearly 24 million people with a net worth of over one million U.S. dollars in the United States, which put the country on the top of the ranking. China was ranked second in that year, with more than six million individuals with wealth exceeding one million U.S. dollars. France followed in third with around three million millionaires.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/legal/#copyright-public-domainhttps://fred.stlouisfed.org/legal/#copyright-public-domain
Graph and download economic data for Total Assets Held by the Top 0.1% (99.9th to 100th Wealth Percentiles) (WFRBLTP1227) from Q3 1989 to Q2 2025 about wealth, percentile, assets, and USA.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/legal/#copyright-public-domainhttps://fred.stlouisfed.org/legal/#copyright-public-domain
Graph and download economic data for Net Worth Held by the Bottom 50% (1st to 50th Wealth Percentiles) (WFRBLB50107) from Q3 1989 to Q2 2025 about net worth, wealth, percentile, Net, and USA.
As of April 2025, Elon Musk was estimated as the wealthiest person in the United States with a net worth of around 342 billion dollars. Richest people in the United States - additional information Every year since 1982, the American business magazine Forbes has been compiling lists of the 400 richest people in the United States, known as the “Forbes 400.” In addition to that, since 1987, the publication has also been compiling a ranking of the 500 richest people in the world (excluding royalty and dictators), as well as more specialized tops, such as “World's Most Powerful Women,” “America's Richest Families,” “Most Valuable Brands” or “30 Under 30,” which focuses on young entrepreneurs from various fields which have gained millions in the past year by the use of social media, technical innovations and generally new and fresh approaches to business.
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.
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.
Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License information was derived automatically
U.S. Top 1% Wealth Share - Historical chart and current data through 2025.
As of 2024, North America had the ******* number of individuals with a net worth exceeding ** million U.S. dollars, totaling nearly *** million people. Asia and Europe followed, with over ******* and ******* individuals, respectively. Compared to 2023, all regions saw an increase in their high-wealth populations, a trend expected to continue through 2028.
The table only covers individuals who have some liability to Income Tax. The percentile points have been independently calculated on total income before tax and total income after tax.
These statistics are classified as accredited official statistics.
You can find more information about these statistics and collated tables for the latest and previous tax years on the Statistics about personal incomes page.
Supporting documentation on the methodology used to produce these statistics is available in the release for each tax year.
Note: comparisons over time may be affected by changes in methodology. Notably, there was a revision to the grossing factors in the 2018 to 2019 publication, which is discussed in the commentary and supporting documentation for that tax year. Further details, including a summary of significant methodological changes over time, data suitability and coverage, are included in the Background Quality Report.
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.
In the first quarter of 2025, 51.4 percent of the total wealth in the United States was owned by members of the baby boomer generation. In comparison, millennials own around 10.3 percent of total wealth in the U.S. In terms of population distribution, there was almost an equal share of millennials and baby boomers in the United States in 2024.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/legal/#copyright-public-domainhttps://fred.stlouisfed.org/legal/#copyright-public-domain
Graph and download economic data for Net Worth Held by the Top 1% (99th to 100th Wealth Percentiles) (WFRBLT01026) from Q3 1989 to Q2 2025 about net worth, wealth, percentile, Net, and USA.