The wealthiest 10% of Americans own 93% of stocks even with market participation at a record high (2024)
Jennifer Sor
·2 min read
The richest Americans own the vast majority of the US stock market, according to Fed data.
The top 10% of Americans held 93% of all stocks, the highest level ever recorded.
Meanwhile, the bottom 50% of Americans held just 1% of all stocks in the third quarter of 2023.
The wealthiest Americans have never owned so much of the stock market, with the top 10% now holding a record 93% of US equities, according to Federal Reserve data.
Still, stock ownership is skewed toward the top: by comparison, the bottom 50% of Americans owned just 1% of all stocks and mutual fund shares in the third quarter, central bank data shows.
While the pandemic period drove a rise in retail trading as Americans had time on their hands working remotely, as well as cash to put to work from government stimulus checks, it doesn't seem to have titled ownership much further away from the richest Americans. Some experts have also said that many retail traders cashed out during the brutal bear market of 2022, unable to stomach steep losses.
In any event, stock market booms have traditionally produced the largest rewards for those who are already wealthy. That's because the wealthiest US households have most of their assets tied up in equities, while most middle-class families have their assets tied up in housing, researchers said in a 2020 study.
In the third quarter, the bottom 50% of households held $4.8 trillion of real estate assets, but just $0.3 trillion worth in stocks, Fed data shows.
The top 1%, by comparison, held over $16 trillion in stocks, and just over $6 trillion in real estate assets.
“The rich now own a record share of stocks,” Axios reported on January 10, noting that the top 10 percent hold about 93 percent of U.S. households stock market wealth. “The running of the bulls in 2023 was more like the waddle of the fat cats,” quipped Irina Ivanova in Fortune.
The wealthiest 10 percent hold about 93 percent of all household stock market wealth in this country, Axios reported recently — a record high. The Institute for Policy Studies analyzed Fed data and found that the lion's share of these gains went to the richest 1 percent alone.
The wealthiest 10% of Americans own 93% of stocks even with market participation at a record high. The richest Americans own the vast majority of the US stock market, according to Fed data. The top 10% of Americans held 93% of all stocks, the highest level ever recorded.
Top 10% wealth: The top 10% of the population has a net worth of approximately $854,900. These figures illustrate a dramatic wealth gradient in the U.S., indicating a substantial increase in net worth needed to move from the top 10% to the top 2%.
The correct answer is B. 77%. The wealthiest 10% of Americans own approximately 77% of the nation's wealth. This means that out of the total wealth in the country, the top 10% of Americans possess almost four-fifths of it.
The top 10% own 88.6% of stocks ($28 trillion). Americans in the 50th to 90th percentile of wealth own 10.8% of stocks ($3.4 trillion). Americans in the bottom 50% own 0.6% of stocks ($19 billion).
The wealthiest 10% of American households now own 89% of all U.S. stocks, a record high that highlights the stock market's role in increasing wealth inequality. The top 1% gained over $6.5 trillion in corporate equities and mutual fund wealth during the pandemic, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve.
Older Americans Now Own 80% of the Stock Market — Here's Why That's a Problem. Americans 55 and older have a large and growing share of stock ownership, and that could prove to be a major problem for the market in the event of a downturn.
A principal shareholder is a person or entity that owns 10% or more of a company's voting shares. The company can be private or publicly traded, meaning the shares trade on an open exchange, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
The top 1% holds $38.7 trillion in wealth. That's more than the combined wealth of America's middle class, a group many economists define as the middle 60% of households by income. Those households hold about 26% of all wealth. Low-income Americans, representing the bottom 20% by income, own about 3% of the wealth.
The number of centi-millionaires in the world has more than doubled in the last 20 years and now stands at 28,420, a report released by a wealth advisory firm said. Thirty-eight percent of centi-millionaires live in the U.S., with 775 based in New York City.
Per the Federal Reserve about 6% of households have over $2,000,000 in wealth in 2020. Several good answers already posted. According to the link below, household net worth of $1.2 million is the top 10%, $2.6 million is top 5%, $11.1 million is the top 1%.
Based on that figure, an annual income of $500,000 or more would make you rich. The Economic Policy Institute uses a different baseline to determine who constitutes the top 1% and the top 5%. For 2021, you're in the top 1% if you earn $819,324 or more each year. The top 5% of income earners make $335,891 per year.
For 2022, the average wage for working Americans was $61,136. The average wages of those in the top 1 percent of wage earners were $785,968 that year. In the rarefied top 0.1 percent, the average earnings were more than $2.8 million in 2022.
The Pew Research Center defines the middle class as households that earn between two-thirds and double the median U.S. household income, which was $65,000 in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The top 1% holds 54% of stocks, worth $19.16 trillion. The bottom 50% of U.S. adults holds only 0.6% of stocks, worth $21 billion. White Americans own 89% of stocks, worth $31.87 trillion. U.S. families held a median value of $52,000 in stocks as of 2022, far below the peak of more than $58,592 in 2001.
In the U.S., it may take you $5.81 million to be in the top 1%, but it takes a minimum net worth of $30 million to be considered among the ultra-high net worth crowd. As of the end of 2023, this ultra-high net worth population is on the rise, reaching 626,000 globally, up from just over 600,000 a year earlier.
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