Average and Median Net Worth by Age in the US
In the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, median family net worth ranged from $33,000 for families with a reference person under 35 to $504,900 for those 75 or older. The average was much higher in every age band: $135,400 for the youngest group and $1.96 million for the oldest. Those numbers are a comparison point for families, not a scorecard for an individual.
The survey is the newest source for these figures, released October 9, 2026. It reports family finances in 2025 dollars and defines net worth as assets minus liabilities. “Age” means the age of the family’s reference person, so the table is not a set of individual account balances. Read the median first if you want to compare with the middle family in an age group; the mean describes the arithmetic average and is pulled upward by families with very high wealth.
Median and average family net worth by age
| Age of reference person | Median net worth | Mean (average) net worth | Mean ÷ median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 35 | $33,000 | $135,400 | 4.1× |
| 35–44 | $155,600 | $681,900 | 4.4× |
| 45–54 | $253,700 | $1,244,500 | 4.9× |
| 55–64 | $411,900 | $1,878,000 | 4.6× |
| 65–74 | $431,300 | $1,897,600 | 4.4× |
| 75 or older | $504,900 | $1,962,200 | 3.9× |
Dollars are in 2025 terms. The ratio is calculated from the Fed’s reported mean and median and rounded to one decimal place.
The mean-to-median gap shows why a headline “average net worth” can feel detached from ordinary experience. In the 45–54 group, the mean is about 4.9 times the median. A small number of very wealthy families can lift the average substantially, even though the median family remains far below it. If you are asking “what is typical?” use the median. If you are asking how all family wealth adds up across the group, the mean is useful too.
Age patterns are not a smooth staircase. The median climbs quickly from $33,000 under 35 to $411,900 at ages 55–64, then barely moves to $431,300 at ages 65–74 before reaching $504,900 at 75 and older. Between the 2022 and 2025 surveys, the under-35 median fell 23 percent in real terms, while the 75-plus median rose 37 percent. The Federal Reserve attributes much of the youngest group’s decline to a reversal of business-equity gains between 2019 and 2022; for the oldest group, increases in retirement-account values were a primary driver.
That does not mean an individual family can expect to follow the same path. Each age row combines different households, including homeowners and renters, families with and without retirement accounts, and people at very different income levels. The SCF is a snapshot, not a forecast of what one person will accumulate by a particular birthday.
What the median includes
Net worth is the value of what a family owns minus what it owes. The Federal Reserve includes financial assets such as transaction and retirement accounts, stocks and bonds, as well as nonfinancial assets such as a primary home, other real estate, vehicles, and business equity. Liabilities include mortgages and other loans, credit-card balances, and other debts. The value is measured at the time of the interview, while the income measure in the report refers to the prior calendar year.
This definition matters when you compare a personal number with the survey. Add the current value of your assets and subtract balances owed on them. Include home equity rather than the full home price: a $400,000 home with a $250,000 mortgage contributes about $150,000 in net housing value before other secured debt or selling costs. Do not subtract the same mortgage twice, and do not count a retirement account both as an asset and as an income stream.
The published age table uses all families in each age group. It does not give separate age-specific medians for homeowners and renters in that table. That distinction matters because housing wealth is concentrated among owners, while renters may have no home equity but may hold other assets. A comparison should keep the survey’s population and your own household definition as close as possible.
How much home equity matters
Home equity is a significant part of the balance sheet for many families, but the Fed’s housing figures apply to homeowners and should not be treated as a direct percentage of every family’s net worth. In 2025, about 66 percent of families (65.6 percent) owned their home. Among those owners, median net housing value—the home’s value minus mortgages and home-equity debt—was $230,000, up from $218,900 in 2022. Mean net housing value among owners was $380,400.
| 2025 housing measure | Federal Reserve estimate |
|---|---|
| Families that owned a home | 66% |
| Median net housing value among homeowners | $230,000 |
| Mean net housing value among homeowners | $380,400 |
| Median net worth across all families | $215,900 |
| Median home value compared with median family income | More than 4.5× |
The $230,000 homeowner median is not “the share” of all-family wealth from housing. It is calculated only among families that own a primary residence, while the $215,900 net-worth median includes owners and nonowners; dividing one by the other would mix two different populations. The useful conclusion is that home equity can make up a large part of a homeowner’s assets, while a renter’s net worth may come from retirement savings, cash, investments, business interests, or other property. The Fed’s report also notes that homeownership rates varied by income group, with 92 percent ownership in the top income decile versus 66 percent overall.
The home value itself is not liquid savings. Selling, moving, borrowing against equity, or downsizing all involve costs and practical tradeoffs. If you are measuring money available for a near-term goal, separate home equity from cash and marketable investments rather than treating every dollar of net worth as equally accessible.
Where you stand by percentile
A median is the 50th percentile: half of the measured families are above it and half below it. For all families combined, the 2025 median was $215,900, but that overall midpoint is not an age-matched benchmark. The Federal Reserve’s published age table reports only medians and means, so the mean should not be read as a target. Percentile cutoffs for each age group, such as where the top 10 percent begins, have to be estimated from the survey’s public data file.
For a quick age-aware comparison, enter your family net worth in the net worth by age calculator. It estimates your percentile from the survey’s public data, so its medians can differ from the published table by a few hundred dollars. Read the result as an estimate, not a ranking that accounts for every difference in income, location, household size, or inheritance. To see how a savings milestone changes the picture over time, compare the net worth milestones calculator and the first $100,000 calculator. These tools answer different questions: where a balance sits among peers, how a long-term target compounds, and how long the first major savings threshold could take.
Why age comparisons can mislead
Older families have had more time to pay down a mortgage, build retirement accounts, or receive inheritances, but age is not the only factor shaping wealth. The Fed found that the median net worth for homeowners was $458,900 in 2025, compared with $10,600 for renters and other nonhomeowners. Across age groups, differences in homeownership, education, income, family size, business ownership, and market exposure all affect the result.
The SCF is designed to represent U.S. families, including a special sample of wealthy households. The Fed warns that new estimates from its complex sample and multiple imputations require special calculations; the figures in this guide are the published values.
Common questions
Is median net worth better than average net worth?
For a “typical family” comparison, median is usually easier to interpret because one extremely wealthy family does not pull it upward as much. The mean includes every family’s value and is useful for measuring the arithmetic average. The 2025 overall median was $215,900 and the mean was $1,241,500, a gap that reflects the uneven distribution of wealth.
Does net worth include a home?
Yes. The SCF counts the primary residence as an asset and subtracts debt secured by it. The result is net housing value, or home equity. The $230,000 median housing value applies to homeowners only, not all families.
What is the median net worth for people under 35?
The 2025 survey reports $33,000 for families whose reference person is under 35. It is a family measure, not an individual balance, and it is in 2025 dollars.
Can I compare my balance with an exact percentile for my age?
The Federal Reserve report publishes mean and median net worth by age band, but not every age-specific percentile cutoff. Our net worth by age calculator estimates the 10th to 99th percentiles for each age group from the survey’s public data. Treat it as a distributional reference, not a full measure of financial health.
The bottom line
The newest Federal Reserve survey puts median family net worth at $33,000 under 35 and $504,900 at 75 or older, while the much larger averages show how a small number of high-wealth families affect the mean. Compare your family’s net worth with the median for a sense of the middle, and keep home equity, accessible savings, and debt obligations distinct when making plans. These are estimates, not personal financial advice.
Source: Federal Reserve Board, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025, October 2026.
Run your own numbers
This guide is general information for planning, not personal financial advice. Figures were checked on the date shown and can change.