Fed Survey Shows Wealth Gap Widening Sharply by Age

Households headed by Americans 75 and older saw their median net worth climb roughly 38% after inflation between 2022 and 2025, while households headed by someone under 35 saw theirs fall 23%, according to the Federal Reserve's latest Survey of Consumer Finances. The survey, released every three years and widely treated as the benchmark for measuring household wealth, points to a widening divide across generations even as the national median net worth rose just 2% over the same period, to $215,900 in 2025 dollars.

The oldest households finished the period with a median net worth of $504,600, up from $366,288 in 2022. For the youngest households, median net worth fell from $42,725 to $32,820. The oldest group now holds roughly 15 times the wealth of the youngest, compared with about nine times three years earlier. No other age bracket recorded a change larger than 6% in either direction, according to an analysis by Nick Maggiulli, chief data officer at Ritholtz Wealth Management.

The figures reflect a broader concentration of wealth among older Americans. Households headed by someone 55 or older now hold about $140 trillion, roughly three-quarters of the nation's net worth, according to a Bank of America Institute analysis of the Fed data. The survey does not track the same households over time, and the 75-and-older bracket includes members of the Silent Generation as well as boomers, while the under-35 group mixes Gen Z with younger millennials. Still, the two ends of the age spectrum stood out sharply from the middle.

Part of the oldest group's gain reflects cohort turnover. Wealthier boomers aged into the 75-and-older bracket between surveys, lifting its median. Comparing households aged 72 and older in 2022 with those aged 75 and older in 2025, Maggiulli calculated a smaller but still substantial 21% increase.

The youngest households' decline followed an unusually large pandemic-era gain. Their inflation-adjusted median net worth rose from about $18,000 in 2019 to nearly $43,000 in 2022, a roughly 140% jump that Maggiulli calls the largest on record, before falling to about $33,000 in 2025. Even after the setback, young households remained wealthier than their counterparts were before the pandemic. With stimulus checks gone and student loan payments resumed, Maggiulli suggests the drop may partly be a return to normal.

The crucial distinction, he argued, was ownership, not just how much people owned but what they owned. Older households held more of their assets in homes and financial investments, while younger households were less likely to own a home and had a larger share of their assets in vehicles. As investments rose and vehicle values fell, those different starting points mattered. The share of under-35 households that owned a home fell from 38.5% in 2022 to 35.6% in 2025, meaning nearly two-thirds of young households did not own an asset that accounts for a substantial share of homeowners' wealth.

Maggiulli pointed to the worst job market for recent college graduates on record and housing at its least affordable in 40 years as reasons the youngest households may be faring worse than earlier generations did at the same age. Older households that built wealth over the past few years did not necessarily have to do anything differently, he noted, because their gains came from appreciating assets.

The findings also echo an argument Yale law and history professor Samuel Moyn made in his book Gerontocracy in America. Moyn describes an «oldigarchy» in which older, disproportionately wealthy Americans hold outsize influence, and argues that «the old rich have pulled away from everyone else.» Asked about the latest Fed figures, he said they further prove his thesis. «The question is whether the age correlation of the haves versus the have-nots with the older versus the younger is fair,» Moyn said. «And it isn't. So this is a case of the older getting richer, not just the rich getting richer.» He added that he expects wealth to keep concentrating toward the upper end of the age spectrum.

3Views

Author

Connor Quincy

Technology Reporter

Connor Quincy covers public affairs, politics, business, culture and daily news for Core Memo. The role focuses on verification, context, and clear explanations for readers.

All articles by this author