Income, Wealth, Equality

There are glaring realities when it comes to wealth and income in the United States. The US is indeed a wealthy country, with the second highest average individual wealth in OECD countries (behind Switzerland).

But “average wealth” distorts another reality—its very uneven distribution. When looking at median wealth (the middle value) rather than the average wealth, the US falls to 18th among OECD countries.

Here are some stark figures published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis in June 2024

• Bottom 50 percent of all Americans have just 2.5 percent of the entire US household wealth. Average wealth: $51,000.

• Top 10 percent hold 67.0 percent of American household wealth. Average wealth: $6,900,000.

Source: Ana Hernández Kent and Lowell R. Ricketts, “The State of US Wealth Inequality,” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, October 22,2024, https://www.stlouisfed.org/institute-for-economic-equity/the-state-of-us-wealth-inequality

Indeed, the wealth of the richest 400 Americans is approximately equal to that of 43 million African Americans.

Source: Lisa Camner McKay, “How the Racial Wealth Gap Has Evolved—And Why It Persists,” Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, October 3, 2022, https://www.minneapolisfed.org/article/2022/how-the-racial-wealth-gap-has-evolved-and-why-it-persists