Average Net Worth by Age: What the 2025 Fed Survey Shows

People love a number to measure themselves against, and "average net worth by age" is one of the most searched. The trouble is that the average is one of the most misleading figures in personal finance. Used carefully, net worth benchmarks can motivate. Used carelessly, they breed either false comfort or needless anxiety.

This guide explains what net worth is, why the median is more honest than the mean, what the data roughly shows by age band, and how to grow your own number. The most authoritative source is the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, conducted every three years, which is where most reputable benchmarks ultimately trace back. The newest edition is the 2025 survey, released on October 9, 2026. All dollar amounts below come from its summary report and are in 2025 dollars, so they can be compared with the 2022 survey after inflation.

What net worth actually measures

Net worth is one subtraction: total assets minus total liabilities.

Assets are what you own that has value: cash and checking balances, high-yield savings, brokerage and retirement accounts, the value of your home and car, and any business interests. Liabilities are what you owe: mortgage balance, student loans, auto loans, and credit card debt.

Subtract the second column from the first and you have your net worth. To work through your own figure step by step, see our guide on how to calculate net worth. Notice what is absent: income. A high earner who spends everything can have a lower net worth than a modest earner who saves diligently.

Median versus mean, and why it matters

This is the most important idea in the article. Two ways to summarize a group of numbers give wildly different pictures.

The mean, or average, adds everyone's net worth and divides by the number of households. A handful of billionaires pull that figure far above what most people actually have. The median is the midpoint: line every household up from poorest to wealthiest, and the median is the one in the middle, with half above and half below.

Because wealth is so unevenly distributed in the United States, the mean net worth is several times the median. In the 2025 survey, the median family had $215,900 and the mean family had $1,241,500, almost six times as much. When a headline cites the "average" net worth for an age group, it is almost always quoting the inflated mean. For judging where a typical household stands, the median is the honest number, and it is the one to anchor on.

Net worth by age in the 2025 survey

The Survey of Consumer Finances groups families by the age of the person the survey treats as the head of the family. The table shows the 2025 results from the Federal Reserve's summary report, with the change since the 2022 survey. All amounts are in 2025 dollars. The 2022 figures were adjusted for inflation, so the changes compare like with like.

Source: Federal Reserve, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025, table 2. Dollar amounts are rounded to the nearest hundred.

Three things stand out.

Young families fell the most. Families under 35 had a median of $33,000, down from $42,700 in 2022. The Fed says this drop is mostly the unwinding of business ownership gains that young families made between 2019 and 2022. It is not a sign that young families suddenly saved less.

The oldest families had the most. Families 75 and older had the highest median of any age group, ahead of families who are close to retiring or just retired. The Fed says this was mostly due to higher values in retirement accounts. It also noted that more families in the survey were 75 or older.

The old pattern still holds in the middle. Median net worth rises from $155,600 at ages 35 to 44 to $411,900 at ages 55 to 64. Families 45 to 54 and 65 to 74 saw small drops since 2022, so one survey is a snapshot, not a trend.

Look at the gap between the two columns. At every age the average is far higher than the median. For families 55 to 64, the average is more than four times the median. That is the difference a few very wealthy families make.

Homeownership matters as much as age. Homeowners had a median of $458,900 in 2025. Renters had $10,600. Much of the gap is home equity, which is the part of your home's value that you own after subtracting what you owe on the mortgage.

Comparison is a double-edged tool

Benchmarks can help or harm depending on how you use them.

Used well, a benchmark is a gut check. If you are 50 and your net worth is near zero, that is a useful signal to examine your savings rate and debt. Used poorly, the same number breeds two errors. The first is false comfort: beating a low median can make someone feel finished when they are far short of their own retirement needs. The second is corrosive anxiety, often driven by comparing yourself to the inflated mean or to a wealthier peer group.

A scenario: same age, different stories

Two 40-year-olds each have a net worth of 30,000 dollars. The first is climbing fast: he paid off 60,000 dollars of student loans over the last decade and now saves 20 percent of his income, so his number is accelerating. The second peaked years ago and has been sliding as credit card balances grow. Identical snapshots, opposite trajectories. This is why a single number, yours or a benchmark's, says little without the trend behind it.

How to grow your net worth

The levers are few and durable.

• Raise your savings rate. The percentage of income you keep and invest is the strongest predictor of future net worth. A workable budget makes this automatic; see our budget guide.
• Pay down high-interest debt. Eliminating a balance at a steep rate is a guaranteed return and directly lifts net worth by shrinking the liability side.
• Invest for the long term. Compounding does the heavy lifting over decades. Starting early matters more than starting large; see how to start investing.
• Build equity deliberately. Paying down a mortgage and avoiding lifestyle inflation as income rises both quietly grow the gap between what you own and what you owe.

Track your net worth once or twice a year, not daily. The point is the direction of travel.

Sources: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, Federal Reserve, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025 (October 2026). For what the same survey says about late payments and cash cushions, see our summary of the 2025 survey.