Federal Reserve data show U.S. family net worth moved in opposite directions across age groups from 2022 to 2025: families under 35 lost ground while those 75 and older posted the highest median net worth.
The median for all U.S. families reached $215,900, up 2% from $211,100 in 2022. That increase coincided with a decline among the youngest group and a substantially larger median for families in the oldest age band.
For families whose reference person was younger than 35, median net worth fell 23% to $33,000 from $42,700. Their mean net worth declined 33% to $135,400. The youngest group’s median had been roughly $18,000 in 2019 before rising to nearly $43,000 in 2022. All figures are adjusted to 2025 dollars.
The trend was reversed among families with a reference person 75 or older. Their median net worth increased 37% to $504,900 from $367,300. Families ages 65 to 74 had the next-highest median, at $431,300. The 75-and-older group held the top position in the age comparison, unlike in several earlier survey years, the Federal Reserve said.
The report points to a pullback in business-equity values as the main factor behind the younger group’s decline. The report identifies rising retirement-account values as the leading factor behind the increase for families 75 and older.
Each three-year Survey of Consumer Finances wave presents a cross-sectional view of families grouped by the reference person’s age. It does not track individual families between waves, so a change in a group’s median does not show what happened to any one family.
