Americans say you need a net worth of at least $2.5 million to feel wealthy, according to Charles Schwab's annual Modern Wealth Survey, which surveyed 1,000 Americans ages 21 to 75 in March 2024.
Additionally, statistics show that the top 2% of the United States population has a net worth of about $2.4 million. On the other hand, the top 5% wealthiest Americans have a net worth of just over $1 million. Therefore, about 2% of the population possesses enough wealth to meet the current definition of being rich.
The top 10% of earners have an average net worth of $2.65 million. Even if you're squeaking into the upper class (the 80-90% range), you're looking at about $793,000. Moving down to the middle class, things get a bit more varied. The upper-middle class folks have an average net worth of around $300,800.
How many multi-millionaires are in the US? About 8,046,080 US households have a net worth of $2 million or more, covering about 6.25% of American households.
According to estimates based on the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, a mere 3.2% of retirees have over $1 million in their retirement accounts. The number of those with $2 million or more is even smaller, falling somewhere between this 3.2% and the 0.1% who have $5 million or more saved.
Probably 1 in every 20 families have a net worth exceeding $3 Million, but most people's net worth is their homes, cars, boats, and only 10% is in savings, so you would typically have to have a net worth of $30 million, which is 1 in every 1000 families.
Your net worth is what you own minus what you owe. It's the total value of all your assets—including your house, cars, investments and cash—minus your liabilities (things like credit card debt, student loans, and what you still owe on your mortgage).
Dated ways of describing someone worth n millions are "n-fold millionaire" and "millionaire n times over". Still commonly used is multimillionaire, which refers to individuals with net assets of 2 million or more of a currency.
The Top 1% by Net Worth
When it comes to net worth, the threshold is even higher. To be part of the top 1% in the U.S., a household's net worth needs to be at least $13.6 million. This measure includes everything you own – homes, investments, savings – minus debts.
Interestingly, the 90th percentile is pretty flat, around $2.5M to $3M, from one's early 50s to one's 80s. The 95th is slightly less flat, with a peak slightly under $7M in one's late 60s; while the 99th percentile rises sharply with age until peaking over $22M in one's late 60s, from which point it mostly drops.
Yahoo Finance
In 2024, Americans stated that the average net worth they consider “wealthy” is $2.5 million.
Retirement savings includes employer-sponsored retirement plans, like 401(k)s, and individual retirement accounts, such as traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs or SEP IRAs. So, if you have $2 million in retirement savings, you are well ahead of the average American retiree.
According to recent data from the Federal Reserve, a net worth of at least $3,795,000 places you among the coveted top 5% of U.S. households. While this may seem like a substantial sum, it pales compared to the ultra-affluent's stratospheric wealth.
According to Kiplinger data, to be in the top 1% of wealth in the U.S. in 2024, one must have a net worth of about $11.6 million. That's up significantly from past years, showing just how concentrated wealth has become at the top. But the 1% isn't the only benchmark worth considering.
But according to Charles Schwab's 2024 Modern Wealth Survey, the general consensus is that a net worth of $778,000 will put most Americans into financial comfort. This survey collected information from 1,000 Americans aged 21-74.
If you guessed "very few," you're right. Less than 1% of retirees hit this milestone, according to data from the Federal Reserve and the Employee Benefit Research Institute. To put that into perspective, even saving $1 million is a challenge – only 3.2% of retirees manage that.
Other sources define the upper-middle class as anyone making a lot of money but that hasn't crossed the threshold to become truly wealthy. These individuals often have a net worth of at least $500,000 to $2 million.
That's about 6% of the population. So if there's 100 people standing in front of you, 6 of them might have $2M and you won't even know.
This year's study reveals that Americans now think it takes an average of $2.5 million to be considered wealthy – which is up slightly from 2023 and 2022 ($2.2 million).
Americans believe it now takes an average net worth of $2.5 million to be counted as rich, a 14% increase from last year's $2.2 million, according to a new survey from Charles Schwab.
Upper-middle-class retirees: These retirees possess a net worth between $201,800 and $608,900. They have diversified assets and enjoy a comfortable retirement cushion.