Net Worth of Average American Explained: Record High Stock Ownership Sees Mixed Impact on Family Wealth

Key Takeaways

• When the Federal Reserve last surveyed the state of Americans’ personal wealth in 2022, the median American family had a net worth of $192,900.
• Meanwhile, the average household had financial assets worth $39,000.
• In 2024, the number of Americans who own stock has risen to its highest level in years.

According to Federal Reserve data, stocks account for a higher percentage of American households’ total financial assets in 2024—41.8% in Q2. Combined with a booming stock market, the impact on families’ overall wealth has been positive.

However, this image of the “average American” hides a more complex reality.

Who Is the Average American?

Assessing the average American’s personal wealth requires defining the terms first.

While mean values are often the default statistical average, this approach wouldn’t provide an accurate picture in a world where Elon Musk’s net worth is more than the gross domestic product of over a dozen countries combined.

As home to more billionaires than any other country, including eight of the ten wealthiest people in the world, the net worth of the U.S. super-rich skews the mean far beyond what most people consider average.

Average Household Net Worth

When the Federal Reserve last surveyed  the state of Americans’ personal wealth in 2022, it calculated that the mean American family had a net worth of $1,063,700.

Meanwhile, the median American family had a net worth of $192,900

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the proportion of people’s wealth that is tied up in property is considerably higher when looking at the median versus the mean average.

According to the survey, the value of non-financial assets, i.e., property, business equity, and vehicles minus any debt owed on them, accounted for 85% of the median American family’s wealth.

At the same time, the average family lived in a home worth over 97% of their total net worth.

How Americans Save and Invest

While property, vehicles, and businesses account for the majority of most people’s wealth, the rest is made up of savings and investments.

Financial investments comprise the biggest proportion of the average American’s net worth after property, with stocks and mixed-asset retirement accounts among the most popular.

In 2022, the median value of American households’ financial assets was $39,000, and the mean value was $511,300.

Transaction accounts—which include checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, call accounts, and prepaid debit cards—were the most commonly owned category of financial asset, held by 98.6% of survey respondents.

After this, 54.3% of families owned retirement accounts and 21% owned stocks.

However, more recent research suggests the stock ownership rate could be much higher.

Stock Ownership Soars

In 2023, a Gallup survey  found that 61% of Americans reported directly or indirectly investing in the stock market, the highest rate since 2008.

Among certain segments of the population, even higher ownership was reported. Among families with an annual household income of $100,000 or more, 84% were exposed to the stock market.

Meanwhile, Gallup observed that women are more likely to own stocks than men, Republicans are more likely to own them than Democrats, and married people are much more likely to own stocks than single people.

Interestingly, the Fed survey data suggests that although the number of Americans holding stocks increased significantly between 2019 and 2022, the median value of their stock holdings decreased. This implies that new investors hold smaller portfolios than those that have held stocks for a long time.

Nevertheless, the share of Americans’ overall financial assets tied to stocks is currently at an all-time high .

With the caveat that the two figures are drawn from different datasets, the combination of rising stock ownership and rising portfolio exposure suggests more people are investing more of their savings than previously.