Median Net Worth by Age 2025: What the Fed's New Survey Says

The Federal Reserve published its 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances on October 9, 2026. It is the most detailed picture of American household wealth there is, and it comes out only every three years. The headline: the median family had a net worth of $215,900 in 2025, up 2% from 2022 after inflation, while the mean rose 7% to $1.24 million.

The age breakdown is where most people look first, and this time it moved in odd ways. The median for families under 35 fell 23%, to $33,000. The median for families 75 and older rose 37%, to $504,900, making them the wealthiest age group for the first time in several surveys. This guide sets out the new numbers by age, explains what is inside them, and shows how to compare your own figure fairly.

Who this is for: US households who want to know where they stand and what the new data says about their stage of life. What it does not cover: individual (rather than family) wealth, state or city figures, and anything outside the US — the survey measures American families only. It is a benchmark, not financial advice.

The new numbersMedian net worth by age, 2022 vs 2025

All figures are in 2025 dollars, so the 2022 values are adjusted for inflation and the change is real. Age means the age of the survey's "reference person" — in a mixed-sex couple, the man; in a same-sex couple, the older partner.

• Under 35 — $33,000, down 23%. The Fed attributes the fall mainly to business equity unwinding: young families' business stakes had jumped between 2019 and 2022 and came back down.
• 35–44 — $155,600, up 5%.
• 45–54 — $253,700, down 6%.
• 55–64 — $411,900, up 3%.
• 65–74 — $431,300, down 4%. The nearly and recently retired lost a little ground at the median.
• 75 and older — $504,900, up 37%. The Fed says the jump was driven mainly by higher retirement-account balances, not by a change in who is in the group.

Across all families the median was $215,900. For context, median family income before taxes was $82,200, up 7% in real terms.

Median vs meanWhy the average is four times the median

You will also see "average net worth by age" figures in the millions. Both numbers are correct, but they answer different questions. The median is the family in the middle: half have more, half have less. The mean adds everything up and divides, so a few very wealthy families pull it far above what a typical family has.

If you want to know what a typical family your age has, use the median. The mean tells you how concentrated wealth is, and at 4–6 times the median, it says very little about the family next door.

What it countsWhat is inside the Fed's number

The survey's definition is close to the one you would use at home — everything owned minus everything owed — but the details decide whether your comparison is fair.

Counted as assets: checking, savings and brokerage accounts; retirement accounts such as 401(k)s, 403(b)s and IRAs at their full balance; the home at its market value and any other real estate; vehicles (the median value among families with one was $26,000); privately owned business equity; and the cash value of life insurance.

Counted as debts: mortgages and home equity loans, credit card balances carried past the last payment, vehicle loans, student loans and other installment loans, including buy-now-pay-later balances.

Not counted: Social Security and traditional defined-benefit pensions. The Fed leaves them out because a future income stream has no agreed current value. That matters most for older families and for anyone with a government or union pension. A retiree with a $500,000 net worth and a $3,000-a-month pension is better off than the table suggests.

Owners and rentersThe biggest gap in the table

No split in the report is wider than the one between homeowners and renters. The median homeowner family had $458,900; the median renter family had $10,600 — about 43 times less. Renters' median fell 7% since 2022 while owners' rose 6%.

Part of that is age, since older families are more likely to own. But it also reflects how wealth is built for most families: paying down a mortgage forces saving every month, and for many families home equity is the largest single asset they own. A renter who invests the difference can match it, but has to do so deliberately. If you rent, the renter median is the more honest comparison, and your own year-over-year change is better still.

Other cuts in the same table: by income, the median runs from $14,400 for the bottom fifth of earners to $3,669,900 for the top tenth. With a college degree it was $505,400, against $106,700 with a high-school diploma.

DebtThe other side of the balance sheet got heavier

Net worth barely moved for the typical family, but debt payments did. The share of families spending more than 40% of their income on debt payments rose from 6.5% to 8.6%, the highest since 2013. Among families with debt, the median payment-to-income ratio rose 2 points, to 15.4%. And 19.6% of families with debt said they had been behind on a loan payment in the past year, up from 12.2% in 2022.

That fits what other data has shown about payments growing faster than pay — debt payments vs take-home pay puts numbers on it for one household. Paying a debt down from savings does not change net worth on the day you do it, since cash and debt fall by the same amount. What it changes is how much interest you pay from then on.

Compare yourselfHow to use the table without fooling yourself

Work out your figure the same way the Fed does. Our guide on how to calculate your net worth covers each line; the short version for a fair comparison:

The same family "below the median" by one comparison is well above it by another. That is the point: choose the comparison that matches your situation, then stop looking at it and look at your own trend.

Getting to the next bandWhat it takes to reach the next age group's median

A natural follow-up question is how much it would take to go from one age group's median to the next one in ten years. We worked that out, in today's dollars, with three assumptions for the real (after-inflation) return on what you already have:

• Early on, saving does almost all the work. From $33,000, even a 4% real return adds only about $16,000 in ten years; the remaining $107,000 has to come from about $728 a month.
• Later, growth carries more. From $253,700, a 4% real return alone gets to about $375,500, so the gap to $411,900 needs about $248 a month. At 0%, it needs $1,318.
• The 0% column is not pessimism for its own sake. Much of a typical family's wealth is home equity, which grows through mortgage payments and house prices, not through a portfolio return. Which column fits you depends on how much of your net worth is invested; asset allocation by age covers that side.

ObjectionsQuestions a careful reader will ask

• "The under-35 drop means young people are getting poorer." Partly, but the Fed points mainly to business equity unwinding after unusually large 2019–2022 gains. The youngest group is also the most sensitive to who happens to be in the sample: 4,367 families were interviewed in total.
• "75-plus families are the richest, so retirees are fine." The median rose mainly on retirement-account balances. Those balances are drawn down over time, and the figure leaves out Social Security, which is most of many retirees' income.
• "This is old data." Interviews took place in 2025, so the survey does not reflect 2026 markets or the September 2026 rate hike. It is still the only source that measures assets and debts together at this level of detail.
• "Net worth ignores liquidity." True. A family with $400,000 in home equity and $2,000 in cash cannot pay a surprise bill from the house. Check your liquid savings separately — how much emergency fund you need gives a target.
• "Medians by age hide huge differences." They do. Income, homeownership, education and region all matter as much as age. The table above shows a few; none of them replaces your own trend.

Where these numbers come from

• Net worth by age, income, housing and education: Federal Reserve Board, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances, released October 9, 2026, table 2 (thousands of 2025 dollars). We recomputed every percentage change from the table's own values and all matched the report.
• Definitions, vehicles, debt measures and late payments: the same report, sections on nonfinancial assets and debt and appendix A. Social Security and defined-benefit pensions are excluded from assets, as the report explains.
• Income, homeownership and survey size: the Fed's press release of October 9, 2026 and appendix A (4,367 families in 2025; 4,602 in 2022).
• Mean ÷ median, owner/renter ratio, the worked example and the monthly-saving table: our arithmetic in a checked script. The saving table assumes monthly deposits at month end and a constant real return compounded monthly, over exactly ten years, ignoring taxes and fees. Because no return is guaranteed and fees and taxes reduce it, the 2% and 4% columns are optimistic for a household that holds cash or a paid-off home; the 0% column is a floor for wealth that does not grow on its own.
• What the survey is: run every three years since 1989, conducted for the Fed by NORC at the University of Chicago. The full report, interactive charts and public data are linked from the Fed's SCF page. The next survey will be the 2028 one.

FAQFrequently asked questions

What is the median net worth by age in 2025?
According to the Federal Reserve's 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances: $33,000 under 35, $155,600 for ages 35–44, $253,700 for 45–54, $411,900 for 55–64, $431,300 for 65–74 and $504,900 for 75 and older, per family, in 2025 dollars.

What is the median net worth of an American family?
$215,900 in 2025, up 2% from 2022 after inflation. The mean is $1,241,500, pulled up by the wealthiest families.

Why did net worth fall for people under 35?
The Fed attributes the 23% drop in the under-35 median mainly to business equity unwinding after large gains between 2019 and 2022. The mean for the group fell 33%.

Does the Fed's net worth include home equity and retirement accounts?
Yes. The home counts at market value with its mortgage as a debt, and retirement accounts count at full balance. Social Security and defined-benefit pensions are not included.

Is net worth measured per person or per household?
Per family. A married couple's combined assets and debts count as one family, so single people should compare with care.

How often does the Fed release net worth data?
The Survey of Consumer Finances runs every three years. The 2025 results came out on October 9, 2026; the next survey covers 2028.

Start your own line

The Fed's table gives you a horizon once every three years. Your own number, recorded every month, tells you whether you are moving toward it. Run the free Net Worth Calculator to get today's figure from the same kinds of lines the Fed counts — cash, investments, property, vehicles and debts — then send those accounts to the Net Worth Tracker with one button. It reads investments from your portfolio and balances from your debt and loan trackers, stores your cash and the things you own outright, and records a snapshot of each part on your first visit every month — free for up to five accounts you add by hand, with no bank login. By the time the next survey comes out, you will have three years of your own data to compare it with.