đșđž JUST IN: Americans over 75 now have roughly 15 times the median household wealth of under-35 households, up from just 9 times three years ago.
The Federal Reserve's latest Survey of Consumer Finances, considered the gold standard for measuring household wealth and released only every three years, shows the gap widened sharply between 2022 and 2025. Median net worth for households headed by someone 75 or older climbed about 38%, inflation-adjusted, to $504,600. Meanwhile, households under 35 saw their median net worth fall 23%, down to just $32,820.
What makes this striking is how one-sided it was. Across every other age bracket, no group saw a change larger than 6% in either direction, meaning this wasn't a broad economic shift, it was specifically the oldest and youngest households moving in opposite directions.
Part of the story is simple aging, wealthier boomers turning 75 pulled the older bracket's median up. But even isolating the same birth cohort over time, those who were 72+ in 2022 and aged into 75+ by 2025, their median net worth still rose 21%. Rising home equity and stock portfolios did the heavy lifting there, while younger households, who hold far less in real estate and equities and more in cash and debt, got squeezed by both falling homeownership rates and a tougher cost-of-living environment.
Yale professor Samuel Moyn has pointed to this data as evidence of what he calls an emerging American "oldigarchy," a generational concentration of wealth that's only accelerating.
#WealthGap #Economy #Millennials #GenZ #PersonalFinance
The Federal Reserve's latest Survey of Consumer Finances, considered the gold standard for measuring household wealth and released only every three years, shows the gap widened sharply between 2022 and 2025. Median net worth for households headed by someone 75 or older climbed about 38%, inflation-adjusted, to $504,600. Meanwhile, households under 35 saw their median net worth fall 23%, down to just $32,820.
What makes this striking is how one-sided it was. Across every other age bracket, no group saw a change larger than 6% in either direction, meaning this wasn't a broad economic shift, it was specifically the oldest and youngest households moving in opposite directions.
Part of the story is simple aging, wealthier boomers turning 75 pulled the older bracket's median up. But even isolating the same birth cohort over time, those who were 72+ in 2022 and aged into 75+ by 2025, their median net worth still rose 21%. Rising home equity and stock portfolios did the heavy lifting there, while younger households, who hold far less in real estate and equities and more in cash and debt, got squeezed by both falling homeownership rates and a tougher cost-of-living environment.
Yale professor Samuel Moyn has pointed to this data as evidence of what he calls an emerging American "oldigarchy," a generational concentration of wealth that's only accelerating.
#WealthGap #Economy #Millennials #GenZ #PersonalFinance