Median net worth by age, from the Federal Reserve's 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances: under 35 $33,000, 35–44 $155,600, 45–54 $253,700, 55–64 $411,900, 65–74 $431,300, 75+ $504,900.S24 Use the median, not the average — the average is $1.24 million, skewed by a small number of very wealthy households.S25
The question is really "compared to whom"
Net worth is everything you own minus everything you owe — cash, investments, retirement accounts, home equity, minus mortgages, loans, and card balances. It's a better scorecard than income, because two people earning the same salary can have wildly different net worth depending on debt, spending, and how long they've been saving.
Median net worth by age
Federal Reserve, 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances
Under-35 net worth fell 23% since 2022, while 75-and-older households gained 37–38%.S24 That's not a verdict on anyone's choices — it's largely timing. Someone in their 70s has had forty-plus years of a rising stock market and a paid-off house; someone under 35 started saving into higher rates, higher rents, and a shorter runway. The age gap in this chart is mostly a savings-years gap, not a decision-making gap.
Why the "average" you've seen elsewhere is misleading
Average net worth across all U.S. families in 2025 was about $1.24 million — up 7% from 2022.S25 The median, the figure for the household squarely in the middle, was $215,900 — up a more modest 2%.S24 That gap, not any single number, is the most important fact on this page.
Average vs. median, all U.S. families
The same dataset, two very different pictures
This is also why a single national number is nearly useless for self-comparison. The age-bracket medians above are the right comparison — and even those compress enormous variation by homeownership, region, and family structure within each bracket.
What actually moves the number
Across every age bracket, the same few things explain most of the gap between households:
Homeownership, and how much mortgage is left
The homeownership rate was 66% in 2025, essentially flat since 2022.S25 A paid-off or mostly-paid-off home is the single largest asset for most families above 55, which is a major reason the 65–74 and 75+ medians jump so far above 55–64.
Years of retirement-account contributions
Compounding needs time more than it needs a high return — the Retirement and Debt vs. Invest pages on this site both make the same point. A 15-year head start usually outweighs a better return chased later.
Debt, not just assets
Net worth subtracts what you owe. The share of families carrying any debt held steady at 77% in 2025,S25 so most households are managing both sides of this equation simultaneously, not just accumulating.
One major life event
Inheritance, a business sale, a divorce, a medical crisis — single events move individual households far more than any savings habit, which is part of why even households in the same age bracket vary enormously.
How to calculate your own
List everything you own
Cash, checking and savings, investment and retirement accounts, home value (use a realistic estimate, not a hopeful one), vehicles, and any other real assets.
List everything you owe
Mortgage balance, auto loans, student loans, credit card balances, any personal loans.
Subtract
Assets minus liabilities. A negative number early in adulthood — common with student loans and a new mortgage — is not unusual and is not a crisis on its own.
Recheck once a year
The Fed's own survey only runs every three years.S24 You don't need more frequently than annually either — net worth is a slow-moving number, and checking monthly mostly just measures market noise.
Related questions
Does net worth include my home? Yes, at its current market value, with the remaining mortgage balance subtracted on the liability side. This is standard practice, though it means home-equity-heavy households can look wealthier on paper than they feel day to day, since that equity isn't spendable without selling, borrowing against it, or a reverse mortgage.
What if my net worth is negative? Common, and not unusual under 35 given student loans and early-career earnings. What matters is the trend, not the snapshot — a predictable path toward zero and then positive territory is a perfectly fine place to be at that stage.
How often does this data update? The Survey of Consumer Finances is triennial — the 2025 edition, released in October 2026, is the first update since 2022.S25 Numbers you see labeled "2024" or earlier elsewhere online are typically interpolated estimates, not a new survey.