Half of American families have less than $215,900 in net worth and half have more, according to the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances. The Fed’s Board released the results Oct. 9: real median net worth rose 2 percent between the 2022 and 2025 surveys to $215,900, and real median family income rose 7 percent to $82,200. Both figures are adjusted for inflation.
The median is the family in the exact middle, which makes it the better yardstick for a household asking where it stands. Anyone comparing their own balance sheet to the survey should use net worth, meaning everything owned minus everything owed, and measure it against the $215,900 median rather than the much larger average.
The survey comes around every three years, so the 2025 results are the benchmark until the Fed publishes its next round.
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Median against mean
The same release puts the mean, or average, net worth at $1.24 million, up 7 percent. The gap between $215,900 and $1.24 million is the survey’s central fact: a small number of very wealthy families pull the average far above where a typical family sits. The Fed’s full report shows the top tenth of families by net worth with a median of $4,935,200 in 2025, up from $4,152,700 in 2022.
Income moved the other way at the top. Real mean family income fell 6 percent to $145,200, and the Fed says families at the upper end of the income and net worth distributions saw declines while those at the lower end saw modest gains in median and mean income. The release adds that most families across the income and net worth distributions saw increases in wealth.
What families own and owe
Homeownership held steady at 66 percent, about unchanged from 2022. Among homeowners, median net housing value, meaning home value minus home-secured debt, rose to $230,000 from $218,900. Retirement plan participation was about 65 percent, up slightly, counting account-type plans, IRAs and defined benefit pensions. The full report says 54.9 percent of families held retirement accounts in 2025, and that the median balance among those who have one rose 11 percent to $106,000.
Stock ownership slipped from 58 percent of families in 2022 to 56 percent, counting direct and indirect holdings. Among stockholders, the median holding rose 36 percent, from $56,900 to $77,400.
Debt tells a more mixed story. The share of families with any debt held at 77 percent, and median and mean debt were unchanged from 2022. But the share of families whose debt payments take more than 40 percent of their income rose from 6.5 percent to 8.6 percent, a level last seen in the 2013 survey. In the full report, 44.7 percent of families said they carried a credit card balance after their last payment, and the median among them owed $3,100. Median student debt fell from $26,800 to $25,600, and the median vehicle loan balance rose 1 percent to $17,000.
Age and the wealth that follows it
The report’s age table shows how uneven the middle is. Median net worth for families headed by someone under 35 fell 23 percent to $33,000. Families headed by someone 65 to 74 had a median of $431,300, down 4 percent from $448,600 in 2022 (in 2025 dollars), while those 75 or older reached $504,900, up 37 percent from $367,300. Put differently, the group in its mid-60s and early 70s slipped while the oldest group jumped past it. The report also breaks the numbers out by race and ethnicity: median net worth for White non-Hispanic families was $332,100, up 6 percent from $311,900; for Hispanic or Latino families, $79,600, up 18 percent from $67,400; and for Black or African-American families, $36,800, down 25 percent from $49,100.
The Fed conducts the survey through NORC at the University of Chicago, which interviewed 4,367 families, according to the Board’s survey page. The sample was drawn from 119 geographic areas, including metro areas and rural counties, and the survey has run every three years since 1989.
Measuring one household against the survey’s middle
The Fed’s release links the full report and an interactive chartbook, which let a reader compare a household with families in the same age group instead of the all-family median. That matters because $215,900 hides a 75-and-older median of $504,900 and an under-35 median of $33,000.
To compare fairly, add up assets such as the home’s value, retirement accounts and savings, then subtract mortgages, card balances, student loans and car loans. Homeowners can also look at the survey’s housing measure, which nets home-secured debt against the home’s value and stood at a $230,000 median.
Gathering the inputs takes an afternoon: the latest statements for each retirement account, a current estimate of the home’s value, the payoff figure on each loan and the balance on each card. A household with a retirement account can then set its balance against the survey’s $106,000 median for families that have one, and a household carrying card debt can set it against the $3,100 median among families with a balance.
The figures describe 2025 wealth and income for the year before the survey, and they are in inflation-adjusted dollars, so a family comparing today’s balances is looking at a rough benchmark rather than an exact line. The Fed’s report is the place to check a specific category before drawing a conclusion.
More Financial Reading
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- 17 Places to Find Your Share of the $4.25 Billion States Give Back
- 17 Ways Retirees Are Tapping a Record $14.9 Trillion in Home Equity
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by The Financial Wire’s editorial team.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
