The Top 10 Percent Own 70 Percent of U.S. Wealth

10 percent of the richest people in the United States own almost 70 percent of the country’s total wealth. As of Q1 of 2021, the top 10 percent held 69.8 percent of total U.S. net worth (which is the value of all assets a person holds minus all their liabilities).

The top 1 percent held about half of that wealth – 32.1 percent, while the next 9 percent held approximately another half at 37.7 percent. The bottom 50 percent of U.S. residents only held 2 percent of all of U.S. wealth. As recently as 2011, that number was as low as 0.4 percent, caused by the downswing of the Great Recession.

The coronavirus pandemic did not have the same effect on the wealth of the bottom 50 percent, which kept growing in 2020 and has now returned to pre-financial crisis levels. The pandemic has, however, expanded the wealth of the ultra-rich top 1 percent, which gained almost two percentage points in overall wealth distribution between Q2 of 2020 and Q1 2021.

Looking the development of U.S. wealth distribution since 1989, the rich have in fact gotten richer, with the top 1 percent expanding their wealth share from 24 percent to 32 percent. The next 9 percent has remained more steady at around 37 percent of wealth held, while the 50-90 percentile has been holding less wealth - 28 percent in 2019, down from 35 percent in 1989.