GALLERY
Income Is Unequal; Wealth Is Far More So
Two rulers side by side: the share of this year's income and the share of everything owned, for the bottom half, the next 40%, the next 9% and the top 1%. Wealth is the steeper spike by far.
Image credit
Chart: Urbanicity (STRATIFICATION-V1), from U.S. Census Bureau / Federal Reserve / Pew Research Center tables, 2023 data, rounded - the source line is printed on the chart.
Read the evidence
- SOURCE IT: the Fed counts net worth from a survey of about 6,000 families plus tax data - who is hard to survey, and which way does that push the top bar?
- LOOK: compare each pair of bars. Where is the gap between income and wealth largest?
- INFER: if the bottom half's wealth share has not moved in thirty years, which of the hall's four charts matters most?
Parts & Labels
- Gold
- share of income (approximate)
- Navy
- share of wealth (net worth)
- The Top 1%
- 17% of income, about 31% of wealth
- The Bottom Half
- 13% of income, about 2.5% of wealth
Why It Existed
The strongest witness for the counterclaim: change the ruler from income to wealth and the spike gets steeper, not flatter. Rich and poor in America is mostly a question of what people own, and most people own little.
Daily Use
The Federal Reserve estimates who owns what every quarter from its Survey of Consumer Finances: houses, retirement accounts, businesses, stock - minus mortgages and debts. Income is a flow; wealth is the pool the flow has filled, or not.
Comparison Panel
- 1989
- top 1% about 23% of wealth
- 2023
- about 31%
- The Bottom Half
- about 2-3% throughout - the floor has not moved
Interesting Facts
- The median white household holds roughly six times the wealth of the median Black household; the income gap is far smaller. Wealth is inherited; income is earned.
- A house is most middle-class families' entire wealth; a stock portfolio is most of the top 1%'s.