According to the Federal Reserve, U.S. households hold $160.35 trillion in combined wealth, which is the value of every American’s assets minus their liabilities.
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To say it’s distributed unevenly is too much of an understatement to even qualify as an understatement. The bottom 50% of the country shares less than 3% of that enormous pie, while the most fortunate 10% gorge on nearly all of it.
Here’s a look at how much money each American would have if every person got an equal slice of the country’s wealth.
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According to Google’s Data Commons project, the U.S. is home to roughly 340.11 million people.
If they divvied up the country’s $160.35 trillion jackpot equally, each would have about $471,465. That’s $942,930 per couple. If a couple had two kids, the four of them would be sitting pretty with $1.89 million.
To most in the lower 50%, that probably sounds like a pretty sweet deal. To many in the monied class in the top half, however, a net worth of less than a half-million dollars might as well be a stint in the poorhouse.
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The Haves and Have-Mores Hoard 2/3 of the Pie
Nearly one dollar in three is in the pockets of the top 1%, which owns $49.46 trillion, or 30.8% of America’s combined wealth — but even the 1% has an aristocracy and an underclass.
The heavyweights at the tippy-top of the pyramid in the top 0.1% — about 340,000 people — own $22.14 trillion, or 13.8% of America’s bounty. That leaves the commoners of the 1% — the 99%-99.9% percentile group — to share $27.32 trillion, or 17% of America’s fortune.
Under that are those in the 90%-99% percentile group, who control $58.34 trillion, or 36.4% of the pie. Combined with the 1%, that puts almost exactly two-thirds of America’s wealth in the bank accounts of the top 10%.
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Nearly all of the remaining third of America’s wealth — 30.3%, or $48.54 trillion — goes to those in the 50%-90% percentile groups.
That leaves just 2.5%, or $4.01 trillion, for the entire bottom 50% of the country to split. If they split it evenly, which they, of course, do not, that would give each of those 170 million people $23,588.
For context, the 340,000 movers and shakers in the top 0.1% get about $65.12 million each — 2,760 times more.
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Sources
United States Federal Reserve, “Distribution of Household Wealth in the U.S. since 1989.”
Data Commons, “United States of America.”
This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: If Wealth Was Evenly Distributed Across America, How Much Money Would Every Person Have?
