In Q3 2025, the wealthiest 1% of Americans owned a record 31.7% of the nation's total wealth — the highest share since the Federal Reserve began tracking in 1989.
31.7%
Top 1% wealth share
2.5%
Bottom 50% wealth share
$7.8T
905 billionaires combined
$809B
Elon Musk net worth
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The Distribution
Who owns what.
The champagne glass is the most honest chart in economics. Scroll to move through the U.S. wealth distribution, from the bottom to the very top.
↓Scroll to move through the distribution
Poorest 20%
1.4% of wealth
100 Americans
Each dot is 1% of the U.S. population, colored by wealth group.
Bottom 50%
Middle 40%
Next 9%
Top 1%
Median (#50)
Each dot is 1% of the U.S. population. Use the buttons to highlight a wealth group.
Top 1% share since 1989
Rising from 23.8% in 1989 to a record 31.7% in 2025, growing through every boom.
the wealth of the median white family versus the median Black family.
The Racial Wealth Gap
Same country. Very different starting lines.
Wealth inequality runs along racial lines that have persisted for generations — the direct result of policy choices, not personal ones.
Each card shows a racial group's share of households vs. their share of total wealth. The wider the gap, the less neutral the system.
White households
66% of all households
Share of total wealth
84.2%
Median net worth: $282,310
FED DFA Q4 2023
Black households
11.4% of all households
Share of total wealth
3.4%
Median net worth: $44,100
FED SCF 2022
Hispanic households
9.6% of all households
Share of total wealth
2.3%
Median net worth: ~$48,000
FED DFA 2023
The gap in plain terms
The median white family has 6.4× the wealth of the median Black family. In absolute dollars, this gap has widened since 1983 — from ~$320K to over $1 million. The gap results from structural racism in housing, banking, and inheritance law.