Generational wealth gap in the United States, 1989-2020. In 1998, the American population under 40 years old held 13.1 percent of America’s total wealth. In 2020, those under 40 hold only 6 percent of the total wealth. This means that millennials and Generation X own less than half of the wealth that older generations owned when they were the same age. Graphic: Self Financial, Inc.
Generational wealth gap in the United States, 1989-2020. In 1998, the American population under 40 years old held 13.1 percent of America’s total wealth. In 2020, those under 40 hold only 6 percent of the total wealth. This means that millennials and Generation X own less than half of the wealth that older generations owned when they were the same age. Graphic: Self Financial, Inc.

20 December 2021 (Self Financial) – In 2021, the average net worth in an American household aged 64-75 reached over $1.2m [1], while the average household under 35 had a net worth of just $76k. With these massive generational wealth gaps, Self decided to dig deeper into the historical wealth distribution of different generations to understand whether the wealth gap has always been so vast.

Key findings: 

  • The average 64-75-year-old American is 94% wealthier than the average 35-year-old
  • Today’s 40-year-olds own half the wealth of older generations when they were the same age
  • Baby boomers owned 33% more real estate than Generation X at the same age
  • Baby boomers are collectively 10 times wealthier than millennials
  • Millennials are 24% behind Generation X in terms of wealth accumulated 

The generational wealth gap

In the U.S., household wealth has traditionally seen a relatively even distribution across different age groups. However, over the last 30 years, data from the U.S. Federal Reserve [2] shows that older generations have been amassing wealth at a far greater rate than their younger cohorts.

In 1998, the American population under 40 years old held 13.1% of America’s total wealth. Today, those under 40 hold only 6% of the total wealth. This means that millennials and Generation X own less than half of the wealth that older generations owned when they were the same age.

In 2021, the vast majority of the country’s wealth (78.1%) belonged to the older generations with baby boomers owning a whopping 52.2% of the country’s wealth, while the silent generation owned 15.2%.

Generation X (aged between 41 and 56 years) owns 27.6%  of the country’s total wealth, while millennials (25-40 years) only possess 5% of the country’s total wealth. Hence, as a group, baby boomers are more than 10 times more wealthy than millennials.

If we look closer at the wealth distribution of millennials, it was recently revealed [3] that Mark Zuckerberg, who has an estimated net worth of $97 billion, single-handedly owns 2% of all millennial wealth. [more]

Average net worth per generation