US Net Worth Percentiles 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-author: David Park | Last updated: October 4, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.0
According to Axis Intelligence Research, a US household needed roughly $238,000 in net worth to sit above the median at June 30, 2026, about $2,625,000 to enter the top 10% and about $16,075,000 to enter the top 1%. These are Federal Reserve thresholds rolled forward with the Fed’s own wealth growth by tier, not with consumer inflation.
Quick Answer
The Federal Reserve’s latest published net worth percentiles come from the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances: a median of $192,900 and a 90th percentile of $1,938,000. Axis Intelligence Research rolls those thresholds forward to Q2 2026 using the Fed’s Distributional Financial Accounts, which puts the 2026 median near $238,000 and the top-10% entry point near $2,625,000. The top 1% cutoff, last published at $11,007,198, is now estimated at $16,075,000.
Key Findings
- According to Axis Intelligence Research, the estimated US median household net worth was $238,000 at June 30, 2026, up from the $192,900 the Federal Reserve measured in its 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances.
- According to Axis Intelligence Research, the entry point to the top 10% of US households by net worth was an estimated $2,625,000 in Q2 2026, against $1,938,000 in the 2022 survey.
- According to Axis Intelligence Research, entering the top 1% required $16,075,000 at June 30, 2026, a 46.0% rise from the Federal Reserve’s last published cutoff of $11,007,198 at Q3 2022.
- Net worth calculators that inflate 2022 thresholds by consumer prices understate the 2026 top-10% entry point by about $441,000, or 20.2%, according to Axis Intelligence Research.
- Per-household net worth in the 99th to 99.9th percentile band grew 46.0% between Q3 2022 and Q2 2026, double the 23.5% recorded by the 50th to 90th band, per Axis Intelligence Research calculations on Federal Reserve data.
What Are the Net Worth Percentiles in 2026?
There is no official 2026 net worth percentile table yet. The Federal Reserve fields its Survey of Consumer Finances every three years; the 2025 wave ran through 2025 and its summary results are still pending as of this update. That leaves every percentile table on the internet anchored to 2022 survey values, most of them published as if nothing has happened to asset prices since.
A lot has happened. So Axis Intelligence Research built the Percentile Threshold Rollforward (PTR): each 2022 Federal Reserve threshold is carried forward by the per-household net worth growth of the wealth tier it sits in, as measured by the Fed’s quarterly Distributional Financial Accounts (DFA). The full formula sits in the Methodology section.
US Net Worth Percentile Thresholds, 2022 Measured vs 2026 Estimated
| Percentile | 2022 measured (SCF, 2022 $) | Q2 2026 estimate (PTR) | CPI-only method | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25th | $27,100 | Not estimated | Not estimated | Federal Reserve SCF 2022, Table B.2 |
| 50th (median) | $192,900 | $238,000 | $217,000 | SCF 2022; Axis Intelligence Research PTR |
| 75th | $658,900 | $814,000 | $743,000 | SCF 2022; Axis Intelligence Research PTR |
| 90th (top 10%) | $1,938,000 | $2,625,000 | $2,184,000 | SCF 2022; Axis Intelligence Research PTR |
| 99th (top 1%) | $11,007,198 (DFA, Q3 2022) | $16,075,000 | $12,405,000 | Federal Reserve DFA; Axis Intelligence Research PTR |
PTR values are estimates rounded to the nearest $1,000. The 99th percentile row uses the DFA wealth concept, explained below.
David Park, Axis Intelligence Research personal finance analyst: “The question people actually type at night is ‘am I behind?’ Most pages answer it with a 2022 number. If you are measuring yourself against a median that is three and a half years old, you are grading a 2026 balance sheet on a 2022 curve. The honest comparison point for a typical household today is closer to $238,000 than to $192,900. That is not a reason to panic. It is a reason to stop using a stale yardstick.”
How Much Net Worth Puts You in the Top 10% and Top 1%?
Two Federal Reserve datasets answer this, and they do not use the same definition of wealth.
The SCF measures what families report owning and owing. The DFA reallocates the Fed’s national balance sheet to wealth tiers, and that balance sheet carries lines the survey leaves out. The DFA level tables list defined benefit pension entitlements and consumer durables for every wealth group, while the SCF report states that defined benefit plans and Social Security are not counted as assets because their present value depends on contested assumptions.
The result is two medians for the same year. The DFA’s minimum cutoff for the 50th to 90th percentile group was $240,508 at Q3 2022, 24.7% above the survey’s $192,900. Neither number is wrong. They answer different questions, and Axis Intelligence Research publishes both rather than averaging them into something that means nothing.
Minimum Net Worth to Enter Each Wealth Tier
| Tier | Last published cutoff (DFA, Q3 2022) | Q2 2026 estimate (PTR, DFA basis) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top 50% | $240,508 | $297,000 | Federal Reserve DFA |
| Top 10% | $2,135,868 | $2,893,000 | Federal Reserve DFA |
| Top 1% | $11,007,198 | $16,075,000 | Federal Reserve DFA |
| Top 0.1% | $45,796,944 | Not estimated | Federal Reserve DFA |
The Fed stopped extending these cutoff series at Q3 2022, the last survey benchmark quarter, even though it updated the underlying group balance sheets through Q2 2026 on September 18, 2026. That gap is exactly what the PTR fills.
For the portfolio mix, leverage and household counts of the households above these lines, see our US high-net-worth statistics, which owns the top-1% balance sheet analysis on this site.
David Park: “People ask me whether $2 million makes them rich. In 2022 survey terms, it put a household just inside the top 10%. In 2026 terms, it probably does not. The line moved by more than half a million dollars while most people were watching their grocery bill, not their percentile.”
Why Do Most Net Worth Percentile Calculators Understate 2026 Thresholds?
Because they adjust 2022 wealth for consumer inflation, and wealth did not grow at the rate of consumer prices.
CPI-U rose 12.7% between the Q3 2022 and Q2 2026 quarterly averages, from 295.453 to 332.985. Over the same window, per-household net worth grew 23.5% in the 50th to 90th percentile band, 35.5% in the 90th to 99th band and 46.0% in the 99th to 99.9th band, according to Axis Intelligence Research calculations on the Fed’s 50th to 90th, 90th to 99th and 99th to 99.9th percentile series.
Per-Household Wealth Growth vs Consumer Inflation, Q3 2022 to Q2 2026
| Measure | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|
| CPI-U (quarterly average) | 12.7% | BLS via FRED; Axis Intelligence Research calculation |
| 50th to 90th percentile, per household | 23.5% | Federal Reserve DFA; Axis Intelligence Research calculation |
| 90th to 99th percentile, per household | 35.5% | Federal Reserve DFA; Axis Intelligence Research calculation |
| 99th to 99.9th percentile, per household | 46.0% | Federal Reserve DFA; Axis Intelligence Research calculation |
| Household count growth | 2.96% | Federal Reserve DFA; Axis Intelligence Research calculation |
The gap compounds as you climb. At the median, the CPI shortcut lands $21,000 below the PTR estimate. At the 90th percentile it lands $441,000 short, a 20.2% understatement of what it takes to enter the top 10%. Higher tiers hold more of their wealth in equities, and the DFA shows corporate equities and mutual fund shares held by the top 1% at $32.9 trillion in Q2 2026, against $374 billion for the entire bottom half.
David Park: “Inflation adjustment is the right tool for a paycheck. It is the wrong tool for a percentile. A percentile is relative: you are not compared with prices, you are compared with other households, and the households near the top of the ladder own the assets that rallied hardest.”
What Is the Median Net Worth by Age in 2026?
The Fed publishes median and mean net worth by the age of the family’s reference person. Percentile thresholds by age require the survey microdata, so the table below shows the published medians and means, plus an Axis Intelligence Research 2026 estimate for the median.
Median and Mean Net Worth by Age
| Age of reference person | Median, 2022 (SCF) | Mean, 2022 (SCF) | Median, Q2 2026 estimate (PTR) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 35 | $39,000 | $183,500 | $48,000 | Federal Reserve SCF 2022, Table 2; Axis Intelligence Research |
| 35 to 44 | $135,600 | $549,600 | $167,000 | Federal Reserve SCF 2022, Table 2; Axis Intelligence Research |
| 45 to 54 | $247,200 | $975,800 | $305,000 | Federal Reserve SCF 2022, Table 2; Axis Intelligence Research |
| 55 to 64 | $364,500 | $1,566,900 | $450,000 | Federal Reserve SCF 2022, Table 2; Axis Intelligence Research |
| 65 to 74 | $409,900 | $1,794,600 | $506,000 | Federal Reserve SCF 2022, Table 2; Axis Intelligence Research |
| 75 and older | $335,600 | $1,624,100 | $414,000 | Federal Reserve SCF 2022, Table 2; Axis Intelligence Research |
The age estimates apply the median-tier growth factor (1.2347) uniformly, so they show direction and scale rather than an age-specific measurement. Younger households hold a larger share of their wealth in housing and retirement accounts, and their 2026 position depends heavily on whether they bought a home before or after 2022.
The 2022 survey already recorded something unusual here: median net worth for families under 35 rose 143% between 2019 and 2022, from $16,100 to $39,000, the largest gain of any age group, while staying the lowest level in absolute terms.
David Park: “If you are in your early thirties, carrying student loans, with a net worth near that $39,000 under-35 median, hold onto this: you are near the middle of your own age group, not at the bottom of the country. The national median includes people who have had thirty more years of compounding than you have.”
How Has the US Net Worth Distribution Changed Since 2007?
The SCF’s percentile table, restated in 2022 dollars, shows how thin the bottom of the distribution stayed through a decade of recovery, and how sharply 2022 broke the pattern.
Net Worth Percentile Thresholds by Survey Year (2022 dollars)
| Survey year | 25th | 50th | 75th | 90th | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | $20,200 | $172,600 | $533,500 | $1,302,700 | Federal Reserve SCF, Table B.2 |
| 2010 | $11,300 | $105,500 | $412,100 | $1,300,900 | Federal Reserve SCF, Table B.2 |
| 2013 | $11,200 | $103,400 | $403,800 | $1,198,600 | Federal Reserve SCF, Table B.2 |
| 2016 | $12,500 | $120,000 | $455,200 | $1,463,200 | Federal Reserve SCF, Table B.2 |
| 2019 | $14,300 | $141,100 | $468,100 | $1,414,500 | Federal Reserve SCF, Table B.2 |
| 2022 | $27,100 | $192,900 | $658,900 | $1,938,000 | Federal Reserve SCF, Table B.2 |
The inflation-adjusted median did not regain its 2007 level until 2022. Between 2019 and 2022, real median net worth surged 37% while the real mean rose 23%, the largest three-year increase in the modern survey’s history and more than double the next-largest, according to the Federal Reserve’s 2022 SCF report. The 25th percentile nearly doubled, from $14,300 to $27,100.
That was the pandemic-era compression. The DFA data since then points the other way. In the year to Q2 2026, aggregate net worth rose 18.9% for the top 0.1% and 15.4% for the 99th to 99.9th band, against 7.2% for the 50th to 90th band and 7.0% for the bottom half, according to Axis Intelligence Research calculations on the Q2 2026 DFA release.
Share of US Household Net Worth by Wealth Group, Q2 2026
| Wealth group | Households | Share of net worth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top 0.1% | 136,779 | 15.0% | Federal Reserve DFA; Axis Intelligence Research calculation |
| 99th to 99.9th | 1,214,225 | 17.5% | Federal Reserve DFA; Axis Intelligence Research calculation |
| 90th to 99th | 12,165,969 | 36.4% | Federal Reserve DFA; Axis Intelligence Research calculation |
| 50th to 90th | 54,064,877 | 28.8% | Federal Reserve DFA; Axis Intelligence Research calculation |
| Bottom 50% | 67,616,544 | 2.3% | Federal Reserve DFA; Axis Intelligence Research calculation |
According to Axis Intelligence Research, US household net worth summed across the five DFA groups stood at $185.65 trillion ($185,651,024 million) across 135,198,394 households at June 30, 2026.
What Does the Census Bureau Say About Household Wealth Percentiles?
The Census Bureau runs a separate wealth measure through the Survey of Income and Program Participation, and its newest release is more recent than the Fed’s survey. The Wealth of Households: 2024 brief, published July 2026, reports median household wealth of $204,900 and a 90th percentile of $1,810,000 for 2024.
Those figures sit below the PTR estimates for 2026, and the gap is partly timing and partly design. SIPP is built to track program participation and income dynamics; the SCF is built to capture concentrated wealth and deliberately oversamples wealthy families, which the Fed notes is why its estimates are most reliable for the upper tail. For the bottom and middle of the distribution, SIPP is a useful cross-check. For the top 10%, the SCF and DFA carry more weight.
| Measure | Value | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| SIPP median household wealth | $204,900 | 2024 | US Census Bureau, P70BR-218 |
| SIPP 90th percentile household wealth | $1,810,000 | 2024 | US Census Bureau, P70BR-218 |
| SCF median family net worth | $192,900 | 2022 | Federal Reserve SCF |
| SCF 90th percentile | $1,938,000 | 2022 | Federal Reserve SCF |
David Park: “Two federal agencies, two numbers, and both are honest. When a site gives you one figure with no year and no source, that is your cue to be skeptical, not reassured.”
What Separates a Median Household From the Top 25%?
Mostly a house and time. The SCF puts median net worth at $396,200 for homeowners and $10,400 for renters, a gap of roughly 38 to 1 in the 2022 survey. Families whose reference person holds a college degree had a median of $464,600.
Inside the distribution itself, the jumps are steep. Families in the 75th to 89.9th percentile group had a median net worth of $1,036,200 in 2022; those in the top decile had a median of $3,794,600. According to Axis Intelligence Research, the 90th percentile threshold was 10.0 times the median in the 2022 survey.
Where advice fits in: once a household crosses into the upper tiers, the SEC’s qualified client test and adviser fee schedules start to matter, which we cover in our US wealth management statistics. For households closer to the median, the levers are cost and literacy: fund expense ratios (see our Vanguard statistics), automated advice pricing (our robo-advisor statistics), and the basic money knowledge measured in our financial literacy statistics.
David Park: “The move from the 50th to the 75th percentile is not a stock tip. In the Fed’s data it looks like ownership, a paid-down mortgage and twenty years of retirement contributions nobody posted about.”
Methodology
Data collection. All figures come from documents retrieved October 4, 2026: the Federal Reserve Board’s 2022 SCF report (October 2023), the Federal Reserve’s Distributional Financial Accounts as published on FRED (Q2 2026 vintage, released September 18, 2026), BLS CPI-U via FRED, and the Census Bureau’s Wealth of Households: 2024 brief. Every number in this article appears as a row in the downloadable CSV with its source URL and retrieval date.
The Percentile Threshold Rollforward (PTR). For a threshold T at percentile p measured in the 2022 benchmark, assigned to DFA wealth group g:
PTR(p, Q2 2026) = T(p, 2022) x [ NW(g, Q2 2026) / NW(g, Q3 2022) ] / [ HH(Q2 2026) / HH(Q3 2022) ]
Where NW is the group’s aggregate net worth and HH is household count. Group assignment: the 50th and 75th percentiles use the 50th to 90th group; the 90th uses the 90th to 99th group; the 99th uses the 99th to 99.9th group. Each cutoff is the floor of, or sits inside, its assigned group.
Inputs. 50th to 90th group: $42,024,565 million (Q3 2022) to $53,425,884 million (Q2 2026). 90th to 99th: $48,495,078 million to $67,634,079 million. 99th to 99.9th: $21,578,105 million to $32,445,932 million. Household count (50th to 90th group, a fixed 40% population share): 52,508,518 to 54,064,877, a factor of 1.02964. Resulting per-household factors: 1.2347, 1.3545 and 1.4604.
Worked example. Median: $192,900 x 1.2347 = $238,174, published as $238,000. Top 10%: $1,938,000 x 1.3545 = $2,625,042, published as $2,625,000.
CPI comparison. CPI-U seasonally adjusted, quarterly averages of 295.453 (Q3 2022) and 332.985 (Q2 2026), a factor of 1.1270.
Basis. SCF-basis estimates scale survey thresholds; DFA-basis estimates scale DFA cutoffs. The two concepts are kept separate throughout.
Scope. The PTR assumes a threshold moves with the average household in its tier. A cutoff sits at the bottom edge of its group, and edge households can grow at a different pace than the group average, so the estimates carry more uncertainty at the 99th percentile than at the median. The 25th percentile and 99.9th percentile are not rolled forward, and no 95th percentile is published here because no primary source reports one for 2022 or later; both declined calculations are logged as retracted rows in the CSV. The age-group estimates apply one tier factor to all ages. All PTR outputs are labeled estimates and will be replaced by measured values when the 2025 SCF is released.
About This Dataset
File: net-worth-percentiles.csv (133 rows), the fact table behind every number on this page. Columns: metric, value, unit, as_of_date, geography, segment, data_type, source_org, source_document, source_url, retrieved_date, is_primary, axis_calculated, method_note.
License: CC BY 4.0. Reuse, chart and republish with attribution: “Axis Intelligence Research, Net Worth Percentiles 2026, 2026.”
Mirrors: Hugging Face, Kaggle and GitHub under the Axis Intelligence Research organization.
Cite This Page
APA: Axis Intelligence Research, & Park, D. (2026, October 4). Net worth percentiles 2026: What it takes to reach the top 50%, 10% and 1% of US households. Axis Intelligence Research. https://axis-intelligence.com/net-worth-percentiles/
MLA: Axis Intelligence Research, and David Park. “Net Worth Percentiles 2026: What It Takes to Reach the Top 50%, 10% and 1% of US Households.” Axis Intelligence Research, 4 Oct. 2026, axis-intelligence.com/net-worth-percentiles/.
Chicago: Axis Intelligence Research, and David Park. “Net Worth Percentiles 2026: What It Takes to Reach the Top 50%, 10% and 1% of US Households.” Axis Intelligence Research, October 4, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/net-worth-percentiles/.
Net Worth Percentile Questions, Answered With Fed Data
Is $1 million in net worth top 10% in 2026?
No. A $1 million net worth sat between the 75th percentile ($658,900) and the 90th percentile ($1,938,000) in the Federal Reserve’s 2022 survey. Axis Intelligence Research estimates the 2026 top-10% entry point at $2,625,000, so $1 million places a household roughly in the top quarter, not the top tenth.
What net worth puts a household in the top 1% in 2026?
According to Axis Intelligence Research, the top-1% entry point was an estimated $16,075,000 at June 30, 2026, rolled forward from the Federal Reserve’s last published cutoff of $11,007,198 at Q3 2022. That cutoff uses the Fed’s DFA wealth concept, which includes defined benefit pension entitlements.
Why does the Fed report two different medians?
The SCF median ($192,900 in 2022) counts what families report owning and owing. The DFA cutoff for the 50th percentile ($240,508 at Q3 2022) allocates the national balance sheet, including defined benefit pensions and consumer durables. The DFA figure is 24.7% higher by concept, not by error.
When will the Federal Reserve publish new net worth percentiles?
The 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances was fielded through 2025, and the Fed has said summary results follow in late 2026. Until then, the 2022 survey is the newest measured percentile table, and quarterly DFA data is the only Fed source extending the picture to 2026.
Should I compare my net worth to the median or the average?
The median. The 2022 mean of $1,063,700 was 5.5 times the $192,900 median because a small number of very wealthy households pull the average up. The median tells you where the middle household stands; the mean mostly tells you how concentrated wealth is.
Does home equity count in net worth percentiles?
Yes. The SCF and DFA both include the primary residence net of mortgage debt. That is why homeowners had a 2022 median of $396,200 against $10,400 for renters, and why the middle of the distribution tracks house prices more closely than stock prices.
Can I just adjust 2022 percentiles for inflation?
Not without losing accuracy. CPI rose 12.7% from Q3 2022 to Q2 2026, while per-household wealth rose 23.5% in the middle tier and 35.5% in the 90th to 99th tier. According to Axis Intelligence Research, CPI adjustment understates the 2026 top-10% threshold by about $441,000.
What is the median net worth for someone under 35?
The Fed measured $39,000 for families whose reference person was under 35 in 2022. Axis Intelligence Research estimates about $48,000 at Q2 2026 using the middle-tier growth factor.