Half of American Households Hold 97.5% of the National Wealth

The richest half of American families owned about 97.5% of national wealth as of the end of 2024, while the bottom half held 2.5%, according to the latest numbers from the Federal Reserve.

The lower 50% of the distribution saw their wealth share improve marginally during President Joe Biden’s term in office, climbing from 2.2%. The 66.6 million households in that group collectively owned about $4 trillion in net wealth at the end of last year, an increase of $1.25 trillion from four years earlier.

Over the same period, America’s richest households — the 133,000 that make up ...