What is the net worth of families in the top 10%?

Income inequality in the United States is a pervasive and longstanding issue.

In the United States, the wealthiest country in the world, a significant number of earners, around sixty percent, live paycheck to paycheck. A recent report by the US Federal Reserve discovered that more than a third of households do not have enough savings to cover an emergency expense greater than $500. However, financial distress is not the situation for all households in the US. In 2023, fifty percent of the wealthiest families in the US will own 97.6 percent of the country’s wealth, leaving only 2.6 percent to be shared among the bottom fifty percent of around sixty-six million households.

Income inequality has consequences. The US Department of Agriculture reported that in 2022, hunger began to rise as pandemic-related assistance ended. These trends have continued, and in November 2023, the US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey found that nearly fourteen percent of families with children did not have enough to eat.

Comparing the wealth of the top ten percent to that of the bottom fifty percent

In the third quarter of 2023, the top ten percent of households, which includes around 13.19 million families, owned roughly two-thirds of all wealth in the US. Again, the amount for the bottom fifty percent of households, representing around sixty-six million families, was just 2.6 percent.

If we divide the $100 trillion owned by the top ten percent of households (around 13.19 million families), each would receive a $7.2 million check. In contrast, the bottom fifty percent of households own approximately $3 trillion, and if divided equally among 66 million families, each would receive around $55,000. The payment for the top ten percent is 138 times larger than that which would be given to those who fall in the bottom fifty percent of households. Critically, the distribution among the bottom fifty percent includes households whose net worth is negative because of their debts. According to the Aspen Institute’s 2019 estimate, around ten percent of households fall into this category.

The picture worsens

There is a significant wealth gap between the wealthiest ten percent of households, but its social impact is less pervasive.

The top one percent of households, which consists of approximately 1.3 million families, own a staggering $45 trillion - 12 times more than the total wealth of the bottom fifty percent. If this enormous sum were to be evenly distributed among the 1.3 million households in this income group, each would receive a payment valued at nearly $35 million. This amount is 635 times larger than the money that the bottom fifty percent would receive.

The shrinking middle class

Figures of both major political parties toss around the idea that the middle class is shrinking in the United States. Exactly who finds themselves in the ‘middle class’ depends on who you ask. Pew Research classifies the middle class as households with an income “of two-thirds to double the U.S. median household income.” Meanwhile, a Gallup poll in 2022 found that around half of respondents considered themselves middle class. Some social scientists, who have a more socialist outlook, would designate the ‘middle class’ as more of a political body than an economic one. For these researchers, the middle class often contains professionals like teachers and nurses, small business owners, and those involved in the trades. This group has a unique economic interest because while they may not endure the hardships of poverty, they still may have financial troubles unknown to those in the capital-owning class that sits above them.

Approximately 52 million households in the United States have a wealth level higher than the bottom 50% but lower than that of the top 10%. This group represents the upper-middle of the US economy and collectively owns around 28.6% of the country’s wealth, which amounts to $41 trillion. However, this figure has been declining for decades. In 1990, this group owned around 36% of the pie. When politicians talk about the shrinking middle class, they are referring to the fact that this group is seeing a decrease in their wealth as compared to the top 10%, who have seen a 10% increase in their collective wealth ownership since 1990.