According to Federal Reserve data as of late 2023/early 2024, the top 10% of U.S. households own approximately 93% of all household-held stock market wealth. This concentration of wealth is a record high, demonstrating that the vast majority of stock market gains are held by the wealthiest Americans, while the bottom 90% own only a small fraction.
The richest Americans own the vast majority of the US stock market, according to Fed data. The top 10% of Americans held 93% of all stocks, the highest level ever recorded.
A 2019 study by Harvard Business Review found either Vanguard, BlackRock or State Street is the largest listed owner of 88% of S&P 500 companies. There is a perception that a few select companies own a vast majority of the stock market.
U.S. Wealth Distribution is Top Heavy
The rich half own about $156 trillion (or about 98% of it). The poorer half only own about $4 trillion. Breaking down that top half even further, the top 1% (1.3 million families) owns about $49 trillion (or about one-third of the total share) by themselves.
Based on this estimate, the richest 10 percent of U.S. households own roughly $42.7 trillion in stock market wealth, with the richest 1 percent owning $25 trillion. The bottom half of U.S. households own less than half a trillion dollars in stock market wealth.
The company started as the brainchild of its founder and current CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, who is the largest individual shareholder. The company is also owned by many institutional investors, the largest being the investment management firm Vanguard.
The pyramid shows that: half of the world's net wealth belongs to the top 1%, top 10% of adults hold 85%, while the bottom 90% hold the remaining 15% of the world's total wealth, top 30% of adults hold 97% of the total wealth.
Only a small fraction of Americans, around 1.8% of U.S. households, have $2 million or more saved in retirement accounts, according to analyses of Federal Reserve data by organizations like the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). This puts them in a very elite group, as most people fall far short of this milestone, with far fewer reaching $3 million (around 0.8%).
The "24-year-old trader making $8 million" refers primarily to Jack Kellogg, a successful day trader who reported over $8 million in gains from trading in 2020 and 2021, starting with just $7,500 and leveraging key indicators like VWAP, support/resistance, volume, and linear regression for simple, adaptable strategies. His story highlights achieving significant returns by weathering different market conditions, learning from losses, and sticking to core principles rather than overcomplicating things.
While just 0.79 percent of jobs in the country paid more than $500,000 per year, that's well more than 1 million positions. Per the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, average annual employment in the United States during 2023 was 153,140,899, or 131,289,681 if only the private sector is included.
Average net worth at age 72
According to Federal Reserve data, households led by someone between the ages of 70 and 74 have an average net worth of about $1.7 million to $1.8 million. This is the mean figure, and it's heavily skewed by very wealthy households.
Elon Musk, already the world's richest man, is on track to potentially become the first trillionaire within the next decade after Tesla shareholders approved a pay package that could propel the CEO's wealth into the 13-digits if he meets a set of lofty corporate quotas.
It's often viewed as a marker of financial success. According to 2023 estimates from the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report and other sources, approximately 23.7 million U.S. households, or about 18.04% of all households, have a net worth of $1 million or more.
Elon Musk was born into a wealthy family in South Africa, with his father a successful engineer and real estate developer who owned an emerald mine, providing a financially comfortable upbringing, but he insists he never inherited large sums and built his own fortune through ventures like Zip2 and PayPal, though his father claims emerald money funded his start.
Three buildings are named Trump Hotels and are owned/operated by the Trump organization: Trump International Hotel and Tower (Chicago) Trump International Hotel and Tower (New York City) Trump International Hotel Las Vegas.
Jeff Bezos is Amazon's largest shareholder. Bezos, who owns about 882 million shares, is the company's founder. 8 In July 2021, he stepped down as CEO and appointed Andrew Jassy to lead Amazon. Bezos remains part of Amazon as the board's executive chair.
Zuckerberg has never revealed his own political affiliation or voting history.