Wealth Gap by Household Age – Wide and Getting Wider

Pew Research is looking at the wide-and-widening gap in household net worth by age.  This trend is going in decidedly the wrong direction right now…

Household median net worth in the U.S. stood at $71,635 in 2009. Across age groups, net worth varied from just $3,662 for households headed by adults younger than 35 to $170,494 for households headed by adults ages 65 and older.

Net worth was $39,601 for households headed by 35- to 44-year-olds, $101,651 for households headed by 45- to 54-year-olds and $162,065 for households headed by 55- to 64-year-olds. Not only are there stark differences in current net worth by householder age, but the trends in wealth holdings over time also diverge dramatically for households headed by younger and older adults.

Younger households in 2009 had sharply lower wealth than did younger households in 1984, while older households had notably more wealth than did older households in 1984.

Lots of interesting findings in the study, read on below…

Source:

The Rising Age Gap in Economic Well-Being (Pew Research)