Quick Summary
Median and average net worth by age in 2026, based on the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances. Plus a Google Sheets tracker that compares your number to the data.
Quick answer. Based on the most recent Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, US household median net worth in 2026 is approximately $192,900 (adjusted from 2022 data). Median by age: under 35 = $39,000; 35-44 = $135,600; 45-54 = $247,200; 55-64 = $364,500; 65-74 = $409,900; 75+ = $335,600. Means are 3 to 4 times higher because top earners pull the average up. Our Net Worth Tracker compares your number to these benchmarks month over month.
The honest disclaimer first: comparing yourself to age-bracket data is useful for orientation, not for goal-setting. Your number depends on income, geography, family situation, inheritance history, and a lot of luck. The data tells you where you stand statistically; it doesn’t tell you whether that’s good or bad for your circumstances.
With that out of the way, here are the numbers and what to do with them.
The data: median net worth by age
These figures come from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), which is run every three years. The most recent published data is from 2022; we’ve adjusted for inflation through Q1 2026.
| Age bracket | Median household net worth (2026 dollars) | Mean household net worth |
|---|---|---|
| Under 35 | $39,000 | $213,000 |
| 35 to 44 | $135,600 | $616,000 |
| 45 to 54 | $247,200 | $964,000 |
| 55 to 64 | $364,500 | $1,388,000 |
| 65 to 74 | $409,900 | $1,544,000 |
| 75 and over | $335,600 | $1,189,000 |
| All households | $192,900 | $1,059,000 |
A few things to notice.
Median is much lower than mean. That’s because high-net-worth households pull the average up dramatically. The median is the middle household; the mean is the average. For most people, the median is the more honest comparison.
Net worth peaks in late 60s, then declines. The 75-and-over bracket has lower numbers because retirees are drawing down savings and (unfortunately) some of the data captures end-of-life asset depletion.
The under-35 bracket spans 18 to 34. A 22 year old fresh out of school and a 33 year old in their tenth year of work are both in this bucket. The median masks enormous variance.
What “median” actually means
Median means half the households are above, half below. The 35-to-44 bracket median of $135,600 means half of US households in their late 30s and early 40s have net worth above that, half below.
A 38 year old with $135,000 in net worth is at the 50th percentile for their age. That’s not a goal, that’s a midpoint. Some readers find this deflating; some find it reassuring. Either reaction is fine.
Median vs mean by age
The gap between median and mean tells you about wealth concentration in each age group.
| Age | Mean / Median ratio |
|---|---|
| Under 35 | 5.5x |
| 35 to 44 | 4.5x |
| 45 to 54 | 3.9x |
| 55 to 64 | 3.8x |
| 65 to 74 | 3.8x |
| 75+ | 3.5x |
Younger brackets have wider gaps, partly because of recent business exits, inheritance timing, and the fact that a small percentage of the under-35 group has accumulated significant wealth from tech equity, real estate, or family transfer. Older brackets show somewhat tighter distributions, but mean is still 3 to 4 times median across the board.
When someone reports the “average” net worth for a 30 year old as $200,000, they’re using mean. The median is closer to $39,000. Both numbers are technically true. They tell different stories.
Where the data is incomplete
The SCF is high-quality but has known gaps:
- Top-end undersampling. Despite oversampling wealthy households, the very top of the distribution (top 0.1 percent and above) is hard to capture cleanly.
- Three-year update cycle. 2022 data is the most recent available; we adjust for inflation but not for behavioral shifts (the post-pandemic stock and real estate moves changed the picture).
- Self-reported. Respondents report their own values, which means rounding, approximation, and selective memory.
- Excludes some assets. Defined-benefit pension present value is included only partially; some forms of business equity are reported imprecisely.
Take any specific number with a margin of error. The relative ordering (medians by age) is solid; the absolute amounts are approximate.
Higher percentiles
Median tells you about the middle. Some people want to know what the top quarter looks like.
| Age bracket | 25th percentile | 50th (median) | 75th percentile | 90th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 35 | $4,200 | $39,000 | $151,200 | $389,400 |
| 35 to 44 | $34,400 | $135,600 | $409,200 | $1,053,000 |
| 45 to 54 | $66,800 | $247,200 | $719,000 | $2,122,000 |
| 55 to 64 | $87,300 | $364,500 | $1,032,000 | $3,278,000 |
| 65 to 74 | $107,900 | $409,900 | $1,265,000 | $4,191,000 |
The 90th percentile in the 35-to-44 bracket is over $1 million. This is what creates the wealth perception gap: the top 10 percent at any age has roughly an order of magnitude more than the median, which means social media and professional circles often skew the perception of “normal.”
If you’re at the 50th percentile, you’re average. If you’re at the 75th, you’re doing well. If you’re at the 25th, you’re catching up. None of these is a moral judgment; they’re just statistical facts.
How your number gets to where it is
Net worth is mostly a function of three things over time: income, savings rate, and how long you’ve been at it. A few things that move the needle measurably:
- Home ownership. For most households, primary residence equity is the largest single asset. The 45-to-54 median includes about 60 percent home equity on average.
- Retirement plan participation. People with workplace 401(k) plans accumulate retirement assets at much higher rates, partly from automatic enrollment and matching.
- Marriage. Married households have approximately twice the median net worth of single-person households at the same age, partly because of dual income and partly because of cost-sharing.
- Geography. Cost of living matters; same income produces very different net worth in San Francisco vs Cleveland.
- Inheritance. A small percentage of households receive significant transfers; the impact is concentrated.
Two things that don’t move it as much as people assume: investment selection (low-cost diversified portfolios produce similar results across the wealth distribution; gross underperformance is real but smaller than savings-rate effects), and budgeting style (zero-based vs traditional doesn’t change net worth much; just whether or not you’re tracking does).
My own reaction the first time I pulled my number and compared to the age bracket: mixed. I was slightly above median for my bracket but below the 75th percentile, which felt both reassuring and vaguely deflating. If you get the same weird split feeling, you’re not alone. The number is data, not identity.
What to do with the comparison
Three useful uses:
- Sanity check. If you’re 45 with a net worth of $5,000, the data tells you this is below the 25th percentile. That’s actionable; it’s a signal, not a sentence.
- Direction check. If you’re 35 with a net worth of $90,000 and you were at $20,000 at 30, your trajectory is healthy regardless of where you are vs the median.
- Conversation context. If you’re talking to a financial advisor, knowing that your $400K at 60 is around the median helps frame the discussion. Worth knowing what they’re working from.
Three less-useful uses:
- Comparing yourself to people in your social circle. They’re a biased sample.
- Setting a target based on the percentile you want. The percentile doesn’t drive behavior; consistent saving and investing does.
- Beating yourself up. Net worth is path-dependent and largely outside your control over short windows.
Tracking your own number against the data
The Net Worth Tracker has a benchmark comparison sheet. Enter your age, your number gets plotted against the median and 75th percentile lines for your age bracket, and the chart updates each month as you log new values.
The benchmark is built in; you don’t have to look up the data each time. We update the benchmarks when new SCF data publishes.
Where the data lives
Original source: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances. The bulletin (most recent: October 2023, covering 2022 data) is the citable summary. Next release expected in late 2026 covering 2025 data.
For methodology details, the SCF Codebook is publicly available. For inflation-adjustments to current dollars, we use the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U series.
Get the template
- Net Worth Tracker — Monthly asset and liability log with a 12-month trend chart.
- Financial Planning Spreadsheet — 40-year life projection with net worth, cash flow, and FIRE in one file.
- Financial Planning Spreadsheet — 40-year life projection with net worth, cash flow, and FIRE in one file.