A new Federal Reserve survey shows Americans 75 and older experienced a 37% increase in median net worth between 2022 and 2025, while families headed by adults younger than 35 lost 23% of their wealth amid rising living costs, household debt and unequal participation in financial markets.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
WASHINGTON — The financial divide between older, wealthier Americans and younger households widened significantly in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Federal Reserve report released Friday, Oct. 9, revealing that substantial gains in stocks and other assets benefited some families while others experienced declining wealth and growing financial pressure.
The Federal Reserve’s 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances found that median family net worth increased just 2% between 2022 and 2025, reaching $215,900 after adjusting for inflation. Behind that modest national improvement, however, were substantial differences among age groups, with families headed by Americans 75 and older recording some of the largest gains while younger households lost considerable ground.
Families headed by someone under 35 saw their median net worth decline 23% to approximately $33,000. Over the same period, the median wealth of families headed by someone 75 or older climbed 37% to $504,900, making that group the wealthiest age category measured by the survey.
The findings, published in the Federal Reserve’s official release of the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, illustrate how asset ownership, age and existing financial resources shaped Americans’ economic experiences during the post-pandemic period.
The survey also found that average family net worth increased 7% to approximately $1.24 million, substantially higher than the median figure. The difference reflects the influence of very wealthy households on the national average, which can rise significantly even when the typical family’s financial position changes relatively little.
The wealthiest 10% of American families recorded particularly substantial gains. Their median net worth increased approximately 31% to $3.6 million, while families at the lower end of the wealth distribution experienced declines.
The divergence helps explain why strong financial market performance and rising aggregate household wealth have not necessarily translated into improved financial security for a large portion of the population.
The Federal Reserve’s findings are based on its triennial Survey of Consumer Finances, which measures household income, assets, debts, savings and other financial characteristics. The survey uses a nationally representative sample of families and examines changes in inflation-adjusted financial conditions over time.
Net worth represents the total value of a household’s assets, including homes, retirement accounts, investments, savings and other property, minus its debts. Those obligations can include mortgages, student loans, credit cards, vehicle loans and other outstanding balances.
The measure therefore provides a broader picture of financial security than income alone. Two families with similar annual earnings can have dramatically different net worth depending on whether they own homes, hold investments or carry substantial debt.
The report found that older Americans benefited considerably from rising asset values, particularly financial investments accumulated over many years.
The pattern differed sharply among younger adults, who are more likely to be establishing careers, paying education-related debts, saving for home purchases and accumulating retirement assets.
Families headed by adults younger than 35 had a median net worth of approximately $42,900 in 2022, compared with $33,000 in 2025. The decline reversed part of the substantial improvement younger households had experienced during the earlier pandemic years.
Those earlier gains were influenced by changes in savings, government assistance, debt obligations and asset values. As those conditions changed, many younger families encountered higher borrowing costs and persistent increases in the prices of essential goods and services.
Other age groups experienced smaller changes in wealth.
Families headed by adults between 35 and 44 recorded a 5% increase in median net worth, while those headed by people between 55 and 64 saw a 3% gain.
The median net worth of households headed by Americans between 45 and 54 declined 6%, and those between 65 and 74 experienced a 4% decrease.
These differences demonstrate that the financial gains recorded among the oldest Americans were not shared equally by every retirement-age household.
In particular, the unusually large increase among families headed by adults 75 and older distinguished them from those between 65 and 74, whose median wealth fell slightly during the same period.
The results suggest that existing asset ownership and household financial circumstances played an important role in determining who benefited from economic developments between 2022 and 2025.
One of the most significant developments during that period was the performance of the stock market.
The S&P 500 rose more than 78% between the beginning of 2023 and the end of 2025, according to a January analysis published by The Motley Fool.
The gains increased the value of retirement portfolios, brokerage accounts and other investments held by Americans who already owned stocks.
However, participation in financial markets was far from universal.
The Federal Reserve found that the proportion of families holding stocks directly or indirectly declined from 58% in 2022 to 56% in 2025. The decrease was concentrated among families outside the top 10% of the income distribution.
Among households that owned stocks, median holdings increased 36%, from $56,900 in 2022 to $77,400 in 2025.
Those figures illustrate how rising markets can increase financial disparities when investment ownership is concentrated among affluent families.
Households with substantial stock portfolios benefited from market appreciation, while those without investments received little or no direct gain.
The divide has become particularly relevant as financial markets have continued generating profits even while many consumers face rising borrowing costs.
Earlier reporting on Wall Street earnings and household debt highlighted the contrast between financial sector performance and the strain experienced by households carrying loans and other obligations.
The latest Federal Reserve report adds further evidence that asset appreciation does not necessarily translate into broad improvements in household financial stability.
It also identified worsening problems involving late payments and debt burdens.
The share of families reporting that they had fallen behind on debt payments increased from approximately 12% in 2022 to nearly 20% in 2025, according to the survey.
The proportion of families with debt payments exceeding 40% of their income rose from 6.5% to 8.6%, reaching a level not recorded since the 2013 survey.
High debt obligations can make households more vulnerable to unexpected expenses, unemployment or reductions in income because a substantial portion of their earnings is already committed to monthly payments.
Credit card balances, vehicle loans, mortgage payments and other obligations can also become more expensive when interest rates rise.
The Federal Reserve increased its benchmark interest rate sharply beginning in 2022 to address inflation that had accelerated during and after the pandemic. Those increases affected borrowing costs throughout the economy, making mortgages, credit cards and other financing more expensive.
Although the central bank subsequently adjusted monetary policy, many households continued facing elevated borrowing expenses and higher prices for housing, food, insurance and other necessities.
The consequences were particularly pronounced for younger adults attempting to purchase their first homes.
Homeownership remains one of the principal ways American families accumulate wealth, in part because homeowners can build equity as they repay mortgages and property values increase.
The Federal Reserve reported that approximately 66% of families owned their homes in 2025, essentially unchanged from 2022.
Among homeowners, median net housing wealth increased from $218,900 to $230,000 during the three-year period.
Those gains provided an additional source of wealth for existing property owners, but they did not necessarily benefit renters or younger families unable to afford a home.
Rising property prices can improve the balance sheets of homeowners while simultaneously increasing the financial barriers faced by prospective buyers.
Mortgage rates have also complicated affordability. Higher borrowing costs increase monthly payments and can reduce the purchasing power of families seeking to enter the housing market.
A separate report examining America’s housing affordability crisis documented the difficulty many prospective homeowners face in finding properties within their budgets.
Those pressures have become part of a broader debate about whether younger Americans can afford the same major financial milestones that previous generations reached earlier in adulthood.
A study released in August by BC Game, a cryptocurrency casino operator, compared the cost of several household expenses and life events between 1985 and 2026.
The study examining affordability across generations reported that the median costs of housing, college, used vehicles, weddings and childcare had increased faster than wages over the period examined.
The study was produced by a commercial company rather than a government statistical agency, and its methodology differs from that used in the Federal Reserve survey. Nevertheless, it identified several categories of expenses that have become central to concerns about younger Americans’ finances.
College costs remain one such issue.
A report on higher education expenses documented increased financial pressure on students and their families, including the costs of tuition, housing and other education-related necessities.
For households carrying student loans, repayments can reduce the money available for retirement contributions, emergency savings or down payments on homes.
The financial impact varies considerably depending on tuition costs, degree completion, employment outcomes and the amount of debt incurred.
Transportation is another significant expense for working families, particularly in communities where commuting requires personal vehicles.
Higher vehicle prices, insurance premiums and financing costs can increase the monthly payments required to maintain reliable transportation.
Childcare expenses can also represent a substantial portion of household income, especially for families with multiple young children.
These costs affect financial decisions involving employment, housing and family formation, even among households whose earnings have increased.
The affordability debate has extended to marriage and other major life events.
A report examining marriage trends among Generation Z explored the relationship between financial considerations and decisions to marry later or postpone traditional milestones.
The extent to which financial conditions directly determine those decisions remains difficult to isolate because social preferences, education, employment and other factors also influence family formation.
However, the Federal Reserve’s findings demonstrate that younger households have fewer accumulated financial resources to absorb major expenses.
The decline in their median wealth is especially notable because it occurred despite an improvement in overall family income.
The survey found that inflation-adjusted median family income rose 7% to $82,200 between the 2022 and 2025 surveys.
Average family income, however, fell 6% to $145,200, indicating that income changes were not distributed uniformly.
The Federal Reserve reported that families in the lower portions of the income and wealth distributions generally experienced modest income gains, while those at the upper end recorded declines.
That pattern differs from the results for accumulated wealth, where the largest gains were concentrated among many older and more affluent households.
The distinction illustrates why income inequality and wealth inequality can move in different directions.
Income measures money received over a particular period, including wages, salaries, investment income and other payments. Wealth represents the stock of assets accumulated over time after subtracting liabilities.
A household can experience rising income but declining net worth if its debts grow faster than its assets or if the value of its property and investments decreases.
Similarly, an older household with relatively modest annual income may experience a substantial increase in net worth because of gains in investments or real estate accumulated over decades.
The Federal Reserve’s findings suggest that these differences became especially pronounced between 2022 and 2025.
The consequences have drawn increasing attention from policymakers as both political parties campaign on the cost of living ahead of the November midterm elections.
Democrats have criticized the Trump administration’s economic policies and emphasized the burden of housing, health care and other expenses on working families.
Republicans have promoted tax reductions, energy production, deregulation and other measures they argue will improve economic conditions and reduce costs.
Both parties have identified affordability as a major concern among voters, although they differ over the policies they believe would provide relief.
An earlier survey conducted through the U.S. Conference of Mayors documented concerns about the effects of rising costs on local communities, including businesses and households.
The issue is particularly important because financial pressure can shape public attitudes toward economic institutions and government policy.
Younger Americans have expressed growing frustration over their ability to purchase homes, repay debts and accumulate savings despite participating in the workforce.
That dissatisfaction has also appeared in surveys examining attitudes toward capitalism and socialism.
A CBS News poll released in September found that support for capitalism among Americans younger than 30 had declined from 52% in 2018 to 48% in 2026.
Over the same period, support for socialism increased from 19% to 21%.
The figures suggest a modest change in economic attitudes among younger adults, although neither result establishes that economic frustration alone caused the shift.
The poll, discussed in NBC News reporting on changing political and economic attitudes, also reflected broad dissatisfaction with existing economic arrangements.
Micah Roberts, a pollster with Public Opinion Strategies, argued that interest in alternatives to traditional economic policies should not automatically be interpreted as a commitment to a particular ideology.
He said the apparent support for some proposals associated with democratic socialism is “really about frustration with the status quo.”
That interpretation is relevant to the debate over younger Americans’ financial prospects, although the polling does not establish how those attitudes will translate into votes.
Political organizations advocating economic changes have sought to appeal to voters concerned about housing, health care, wages and the concentration of wealth.
The Democratic Socialists of America has promoted policies involving public services, worker protections and greater government involvement in selected sectors of the economy.
The organization’s policy agenda and public positions have become part of the broader debate over whether traditional economic policies adequately address rising costs and wealth inequality.
However, public support for individual economic proposals does not necessarily indicate support for every aspect of a political organization’s platform.
The Federal Reserve survey provides a statistical foundation for discussing these issues, but it does not identify a single policy or political administration as the cause of the widening wealth gap.
The measured changes occurred across several years marked by the pandemic’s aftermath, elevated inflation, rising interest rates, gains in financial markets and changes in household borrowing.
The report also covers a period spanning the Biden administration and the beginning of Trump’s second term, making it inappropriate to attribute all the observed changes to policies implemented by either president alone.
The Federal Reserve did not assign partisan responsibility for the financial developments documented in its survey.
Its findings instead describe how American families’ income, assets, debts and financial vulnerabilities changed between successive survey periods.
Those changes were not uniformly negative.
More families participated in retirement plans, with coverage increasing slightly to approximately 65%, and retirement account balances rose among households holding those accounts.
Homeownership remained stable, and median housing equity increased among property owners.
Median family income also improved after adjusting for inflation.
Nevertheless, those developments occurred alongside a greater concentration of wealth among affluent households, declining median net worth among younger families and increasing financial stress associated with debt.
The simultaneous improvements and setbacks illustrate the complexity of the post-pandemic economy.
Aggregate measures can indicate that households are becoming wealthier while substantial portions of the population experience declining financial security.
For young adults who have not accumulated substantial investments or property, gains in stock indexes may offer limited immediate benefit.
For older households holding sizable portfolios and home equity, those same developments can produce considerable increases in net worth.
The widening divide has implications beyond the immediate financial position of individual families.
Wealth can influence access to education, homeownership, business opportunities and retirement security. Families with greater resources are often better positioned to withstand unemployment, medical expenses or other unexpected financial disruptions.
Those resources can also be passed to younger generations through gifts, assistance with home purchases and inheritances, creating financial differences among households that may otherwise have similar incomes.
Conversely, families with limited savings and substantial debt may find it more difficult to accumulate assets over time.
The Federal Reserve’s latest findings show how those differences can expand during periods when investment values rise faster than the wealth of households with fewer assets.
The figures also demonstrate that the financial position of Americans cannot be adequately assessed through stock market performance or average wealth alone.
Between 2022 and 2025, the typical family’s net worth increased only slightly, while the oldest households recorded substantial gains and the youngest lost nearly one-quarter of their median wealth.
At the same time, more families struggled to keep up with debt payments, despite improvements in median income.
Those developments help explain why concerns about affordability persist even when economic indicators show growth.
As the November elections approach, the report provides new evidence for the national debate over wages, housing costs, debt, retirement security and the distribution of economic gains.
The central finding is that Americans emerged from the post-pandemic period with increasingly different financial outcomes depending on their age, assets and existing economic position.
For families headed by adults 75 and older, median wealth reached approximately $505,000. For those headed by adults younger than 35, the figure stood at roughly $33,000.
The widening gap underscores the extent to which accumulated assets, rather than earnings alone, are shaping financial security across generations in the United States.
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