Wealth Inequality in the United States

Median household wealth shot up by 36.7% in real terms between 2019 and 2022, as asset prices continued to rebound, and by 2022, it had exceeded its previous 2007 peak. Mean wealth likewise more than fully recovered and by 2016 had exceeded its 2007 peak. There was a sharp remission in wealth inequality, with the Gini coefficient down by 0.022 from 2019 to 2022. Still, from 1983 through 2022, wealth inequality was up substantially, with the Gini coefficient rising by 0.048. The overall homeownership rate rebounded briskly, by 3.7 percentage points from its low point in 2016 to 67.4% in 2022. However, it was still below its 2004 high point. The overall stock ownership rate likewise advanced to 57.5%, considerably above its previous 2001 peak. The debt-income and debt-net worth ratios among all households likewise receded from their high points in 2010 to 97.5% and 12.4%, respectively, in 2022. The Black-white gap in mean net worth widened considerably over the Great Recession and then remained largely unchanged through 2022, while the Hispanic-white wealth gap, which likewise enlarged over the Great Recession, contracted beginning in 2016.