7 Key Findings About Wealth and Financial Security

By Peter Ciurczak

In October 2026, the Federal Reserve Bank’s Board of Governors released the latest iteration of the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). Conducted every three years, the SCF is a large national survey exploring the economic security of American families. Much of our research on net wealth and assets comes from this survey. So, as part of our Racial Wealth Equity Resource Center effort, this brief looks at the latest data on how American families are faring in terms of wealth and their financial situations.

The big takeaways here? Wealth grew between 2022 and 2025, albeit slowly. Wealth inequality is increasing. And more families are struggling with debt. Read on for more detail…

1) Net wealth grew in 2025, but by the slowest rate since 2013.

Median household wealth was up by just over $5,000 since 2022 (7 percent). But this growth is considerably slower than at any point since 2013, and much less than the 30 percent growth we saw from 2019 to 2022.

While the Survey of Consumer Finances is an invaluable resource for understanding wealth in America, its national sample is not large enough to produce reliable state estimates. Meanwhile, however, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston recently undertook an ambitious new effort to measure household wealth across Massachusetts. The resulting survey, MassECHOS, which the Boston Foundation helped fund, provides a unique look at wealth not only statewide, but also in Greater Boston and the Gateway Cities.

There are methodological differences between MassECHOS and the SCF that complicate direct comparisons. For now, even a simple comparison of topline findings is revealing, as median household wealth in Massachusetts is approximately $374,000, substantially higher than the national median of $216,000. Wealth in Gateway Cities, by contrast, is less than half the national median at just $101,500. Researchers at the Boston Fed may explore ways to make further comparisons between these two surveys in the coming months.

2) Wealth gains were concentrated at the top.

Breaking down changes by different points in the wealth distribution shows that most of the wealth gains in the last three years went to those who already had considerable net wealth. Families between the 75th and 90th wealth percentiles saw their net worth grow by about 12 percent, while households in the top 10 percent saw their median net worth rise by $1 million, or 19 percent, to $4.9 million.

Meanwhile, households in the bottom half of the distribution lost ground. The bottom 20 percent saw their wealth fall by more than half compared with 2022, while households between the 25th and 49.9th percentiles experienced a more modest decline of about 2 percent.

3) Median wealth increased for every racial and ethnic group except Black households.

Looking at wealth trends by race and ethnicity, Black households were the only group to experience a decline in median wealth between 2022 and 2025 (from $48,000 to $36,000, a 25 percent decline). These changes should be interpreted cautiously, as the differences fall within the survey’s margin of error, but still, the decline stands out, particularly given that Black median wealth was already far below that of other groups.

One possible factor is the expiration of pandemic-era federal supports, which in different ways targeted lower-income and lower-wealth households. And because Black households are disproportionately represented among these groups, the expiration of these supports may have contributed to their declining wealth. No doubt many factors contributed to this decline, and the SCF alone cannot tell us what drove it.

The combination of declining Black wealth and rising White wealth also served to widen the White/Black wealth gap. In 2022, median White household wealth was roughly six times that of Black households, the smallest ratio since 1998. By 2025, that ratio had risen to more than nine to one, one of the largest gaps recorded since 1992, exceeded only in the years following the Great Recession. By contrast, the wealth gaps between White households and other racial and ethnic groups either narrowed or remained relatively stable.

Finally, Asian households stand out for their particularly high levels of median wealth. At $677,000 in 2025, their median net worth was more than twice that of White households and far above every other group. However, other research has documented particularly wide wealth disparities across Asian American households, suggesting that these high median numbers mask substantial intra-Asian inequality.

4) Wealth gaps have also widened by age, housing tenure, and educational attainment.

We also see an uneven distribution of gains when we look at differences by age, homeownership, and education. Notably, households over 75 years old saw a remarkable 38 percent increase in their median wealth, homeowners saw a 5.8 percent gain, and graduate degree holders saw a 4.4 percent gain. Many other groups saw losses, sometimes significant ones.

The particularly strong gains among older households are not entirely surprising. Wealth often accumulates over time, as people build home equity, save and invest, and pay down debt.

5) Late debt payments have increased for all racial groups.

While 2022 was notable for substantial government spending to support households coming out of the pandemic, 2025 presented a very different picture. Cuts to government programs, administrative efforts to restructure and shrink the government, various tariffs, inflation, and significant economic uncertainty all contributed to household financial insecurity.

And it appears that these factors led to an increase in late debt payments in 2025. Among all households, late payments spiked between 2022 and 2025, with Black and Latino households most effected. About a third of Black households and 29 percent of Latino households reported making a late payment in the last year, the highest shares recorded for either group since 1992.

6) The share of households with high debt loads is increasing.

One reason late payments may have spiked is that families are increasingly carrying more debt. Debt is not necessarily a bad thing if it funds productive investments like higher education or buying a home. It becomes problematic, though, when debt takes up a significant portion of one’s income or when it’s used for things that don’t have long-term benefits.

To understand how debt affects a household, we turn to a common measure of financial precarity, the debt-to-income ratio. This measures a household’s annual debt payments relative to its annual income, with payments exceeding 40 percent of income generally considered a sign of significant financial strain.

In 2025, the share of all households with debt loads above this threshold grew to 8.6 percent, the highest level since 2013. Black households experienced a particularly sharp increase, with 12 percent carrying high debt burdens, the largest share since 2010.

7) Median credit card balances increased for most racial groups.

While the debt measures discussed above treat all forms of debt equally, it’s worth looking more closely at one particularly common type: credit card debt. Credit card balances tend to increase during times of financial uncertainty, as families lean on credit to cover expenses when incomes are insufficient. Some families also turn to payday loans or newer buy-now-pay-later plans in times of stress, although these remain less common than credit cards. In 2025, median credit card balances rose for nearly every racial and ethnic group compared with 2022, with Asian households the notable exception. Among White and Black households, balances reached levels not seen since 2013.

For some households, it could be that higher incomes or wealth make larger balances more sustainable. But given the other evidence of financial precarity we’ve already seen, it seems more likely that families are generally spending more than they can comfortably afford and hoping that they can catch up sometime down the road.

Conclusion

These findings offer a snapshot of American household finances in 2025, but we are already more than 10 months into 2026, and the economic picture has continued to evolve. Rising gas prices, persistent inflation, and broader economic uncertainty may have put further pressure on many families, even while a strong stock market may continue to drive wealth gains for households at the top of the distribution. Continued growth in wealth at the median will certainly be important, but the distribution of those gains matters as well. The challenge going forward is to accelerate wealth growth again, while still ensuring that more American families share in the benefits of that growth.