Racial Wealth Gains and Gaps: Ten Economic Facts About the Disparities

Over the three years between the release of the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) and the survey data released in 2022, household wealth increased for all racial and ethnic groups, but the Black-White wealth gap increased in dollar terms. The 2022 release of the SCF is the first to provide wealth data for Asian American households as a separate group—revealing that they have significantly more wealth than households of other racial and ethnic groups. It is important to understand how racial wealth and income gaps came to be, what factors contribute to their perpetuation, and what policies can be put in place to narrow them. As a part of that big project, we develop ten stylized facts about the racial wealth gap and factors that influence it. While none of the economic facts presented fully explains the racial wealth gap, each fact, along with a history of racism and discrimination, has contributed to extreme wealth inequality in America today.