The typical American family got a little wealthier in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic, while well-off and older Americans got much richer.
Median family net worth rose 2% from 2022 to 2025 to about $216,000, adjusted for inflation, according to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, which was released on Friday. The survey comes out every three years and is considered the gold standard for measuring household wealth.
Overall wealth gains slowed markedly from the prior period from 2019 to 2022, when wealth increased 37%, the most in the 30-plus year history of the survey, thanks to rising stock and home prices.
Wealth is measured as a family's assets, like stocks and home equity, minus their liabilities, like mortgages and credit-card debt.
Median wealth for a family in the top 10% of earners increased 31%, while wealth decreased for the bottom 40% of earners.
Wealth increased 37% for Americans 75 and older, while it declined 23% for people under 35. During this period, people 75 and older became the richest age group, with a median net worth of $505,000.
The wealth gains for these groups were likely due to the fact that they tend to own a lot of stocks, and the stock market went up markedly during this period. Since the end of last year, the stock market has risen sharply, with the S&P 500 gaining about 13%.
Overall, the survey paints a picture of a two-speed economy, where older and affluent people are thriving and persistent inflation is making everyone else felt pessimistic about their finances and the economy broadly.
The survey also found that families were more likely to be behind on their financial obligations than at any point since 2010. The share of families reporting behind on loan payments jumped from 12% in 2022 to 20% in 2025.