On average, each person on America’s top 10 rich list gained $69.8 billion over the past year—they made 833,631 times more than what the typical American household takes home.
Over 40% of the U.S. population—including nearly 50% of children—are considered to be poor or low income, according to the report. And looking at trends within the last few decades, the worsening wealth divide is even more stark. Between 1989 and 2022, a rich U.S. household at the 99th percentile (or top 1%) gained 101 times more wealth than the average home.
In fact, the wealthiest 0.1% of Americans today own 12.6% of assets and 24% of the stock market. Meanwhile, the bottom 50% of the U.S. owns just 1.1% of the exchange.
Women and people of color have been hit hardest by mounting inequality; the average male-headed household gained four times as much wealth compared to the average female-led home. The fortunes of white households were bolstered 7.2 times more than the average Black household, and 6.7 times higher than the typical Hispanic/Latino home. And despite making up one-third of the U.S. population, Black and Hispanic/Latino households only hold 5.8% of the country’s wealth.
