The Top 10% in Net Worth By Age
How much money do the richest people have?
It is well known that very few rich people own a large share of the total wealth. But how unequal is the distribution in reality? In this article, you will find out how much the top 10% of americans by age group are worth and how much that is compared to the average.
What exactly does net worth mean?
Your Net worth is simply the value of all your assets such as real estate, stocks, bank deposits, cash, etc. minus your debts, expressed in a monetary amount. This means that you can also have a negative net worth. If the debts are greater than the total value of the assets.
Networth= assets- liabilities
As a comparison: the average figures
To better understand the figures for the richest 10%, let’s first look at the average net worths. But there is one thing to keep in mind: the average is a bit misleading. It is defined as the total wealth of all Americans divided by the number of Americans. The super-rich people, of course, drive this value extremely high. The median is therefore more meaningful. This value divides the population into 2 equal parts. If your net worth is exactly equal to the median, half of the Americans are richer and the other half are poorer than you.
Let’s look at the numbers:
- Below 35: median $13,900, average $76,300
- 35–44: $91,300/ $436,200
…the average is skyrocketing between these age groups. Looks like most wealthy people start to get in rich in their 30s and early 40s.
- 45–54: $168,300/ $ 833,200
…and even richer in their late 40s and early 50s.
- 55–64: $212,500/$1,175,900
- 65–74: $266,400/ $1,217,700
- 75: $254,800/ $977,600
The richest 10%
To be in the top 10%, you need the at least following net worth, depending on your age group:
- 18–25: $65,510
- 26–30: $142,710
- 31–35: $259,780
- 36–40: $464,100
- 41–45: $721,800
- 46–50: $1,173,100
- 51–55: $1,224,500
- 56–60: $2,456,300
- 61–65: $1,957,700
- 66–70: $1,712,000
- 71–75: $2,118,600
- 76–99: $2,079,069
The data comes from an article in Business Insider.
I find it very remarkable that the top 10% and the average values are very close to each other. The difference between the median and the average is much greater in most age groups. This shows how much the richest own and how unequally wealth is distributed.
And what about the richest 1%? The answer is in this article.
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