WASHINGTON — Bolstered by steady gains in the stock market, families headed by someone aged 75 or older are now America’s wealthiest, while the youngest families saw their wealth decline in the past three years, a U.S. government report released Friday said. The finding from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances underscores how robust stock market gains have made wealthier American families even richer since the survey, conducted every three years, was last completed in 2022. The median net worth of the richest one-tenth of American families soared 31 per cent to US$3.6 million from 2022 to 2025, the survey found. The median is the midpoint between the richest and poorest families. For the oldest families aged 75 and over, median net worth jumped to nearly $505,000, up from just over $367,000 in 2022. Three years ago, families aged 65 to 74 were the richest. All the figures are adjusted for inflation. Average wealth for the oldest age group rose 10 per cent to $1.96 million. The higher average, compared with the median, reflects the fact that wealthier Americans pulled up the average relative to the median. Those aged 35 and below reported median net worth of $33,000, a drop of 23 per cent from 2022. Overall, the survey found broad gains in income, even after adjusting for inflation, which slightly reduced income inequality compared with three years earlier. Higher-income families actually saw their incomes drop, likely because of declines in business income, which the Fed said can be volatile. Median family incomes rose about seven per cent from 2021 to 2024, the Fed said, to about $82,000. The survey measures incomes in the year prior to the periods covered by the report. The middle one-fifth of families saw the biggest income gain, while the top fifth reported lower incomes. Even so, the proportion of Americans struggling with high debt payments and falling behind on their payments jumped, a sign of the toll that sharply higher inflation and higher interest rates have taken on lower-income Americans. In 2025, nearly 20 per cent of U.S. families said they had been late on a loan payment in the previous year, up sharply from 12.2 per cent in 2022. And the proportion of families dedicating 40 per cent or more of their incomes to debt payments jumped to 8.6 per cent, the highest in at least 12 years, the report showed. Christopher Rugaber, The Associated Press
