Accessible Version

Wealth and Income Concentration in the SCF: 1989–2019, Accessible Data

Figure A. Asset composition—including DB assets—by wealth group

Thousands of 2019 dollars

  DB DC Financial Other Houses Business Total
bottom 50 6 8 8 49 21 1 94
next 40 173 112 89 166 168 31 740
next 9 813 700 939 636 536 509 4134
top 1 348 1691 10562 3438 2086 10848 28973

Source: Federal Reserve Board, 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances.

Notes: Figure shows mean asset composition of Bottom 50 wealth percentiles, 50th–90th percentiles (Next 40), 90th–99th wealth percentiles (Next 9) and wealthiest 1 percent (Top 1), 1989–2019. Key identifies bars in order from top to bottom. Business includes privately held businesses, houses is home equity in primary residence, financial includes non-retirement financial assets, DC are retirement assets held in accounts, DB are allocated DB wealth, and other are all other assets.

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Figure B. Wealth distributions, Bulletin (dashed line) versus Augmented (solid line) Measures, 1989-2019

Share of aggregate wealth

  Bulletin (dashed line) Augmented (solid line)
  Bottom 50 Next 40 Next 9 Top 1 Bottom 50 Next 40 Next 9 Top 1
1989 0.03 0.30 0.37 0.30 0.04 0.34 0.36 0.26
1992 0.03 0.30 0.37 0.30 0.04 0.35 0.35 0.25
1995 0.04 0.29 0.33 0.35 0.04 0.35 0.33 0.28
1998 0.03 0.28 0.35 0.34 0.04 0.33 0.34 0.29
2001 0.03 0.28 0.37 0.33 0.03 0.33 0.35 0.29
2004 0.03 0.28 0.36 0.33 0.03 0.32 0.35 0.29
2007 0.03 0.26 0.38 0.34 0.03 0.30 0.37 0.30
2010 0.01 0.24 0.40 0.35 0.02 0.30 0.39 0.30
2013 0.01 0.24 0.39 0.36 0.02 0.29 0.38 0.31
2016 0.01 0.22 0.38 0.39 0.02 0.27 0.37 0.34
2019 0.01 0.22 0.39 0.37 0.02 0.27 0.38 0.33

Source: Federal Reserve Board, Survey of Consumer Finances.

Notes: Figure shows share of wealth held by Bottom 50 wealth percentiles and 50th–90th percentiles (Next 40), 90th–99th wealth percentiles (Next 9) and wealthiest 1 percent (Top 1), 1989–2019.

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Figure C. Wealth held by Bottom 50 and Next 40 segments, 1989–2019

Share of aggregate wealth

  SCF Augmented Bottom 50 WID Bottom 50 SCF Augmented Next 40 WID Next 40
1989 0.04 0.02 0.34 0.35
1992 0.04 0.02 0.35 0.34
1995 0.04 0.02 0.35 0.34
1998 0.04 0.01 0.33 0.32
2001 0.03 0.01 0.33 0.32
2004 0.03 0.01 0.32 0.32
2007 0.03 0.00 0.30 0.31
2010 0.02 -0.01 0.30 0.28
2013 0.02 0.00 0.29 0.28
2016 0.02 0.00 0.27 0.28
2019 0.02 N/A 0.27 N/A

Source: Federal Reserve Board, Survey of Consumer Finances, and WID.

Notes: Figure shows share of wealth held by Bottom 50 wealth percentiles and 50th–90th percentiles (Next 40), 1989–2019.

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Figure D. Wealth held by Next 9 and Top 1 segments, 1989–2019

Share of aggregate wealth

  SCF Augmented Next 9 WID Next 9 SZZ Next 9
1989 0.36 0.36 0.35
1992 0.35 0.37 0.35
1995 0.33 0.37 0.36
1998 0.34 0.36 0.35
2001 0.35 0.35 0.34
2004 0.35 0.36 0.35
2007 0.37 0.35 0.34
2010 0.39 0.36 0.37
2013 0.38 0.35 0.36
2016 0.37 0.35 0.36
2019 0.38 N/A N/A
Figure D. Share of wealth in Next 9 and Top 1 percent, 1989–2019 (Right Panel)
  SCF Augmented Top 1 WID Top 1 Standard Error (Bottom) SZZ Top 1 Standard Error (Top)
1989 0.26 0.26 0.23 0.24 0.28
1992 0.25 0.27 0.24 0.25 0.26
1995 0.28 0.28 0.27 0.25 0.30
1998 0.29 0.30 0.27 0.27 0.31
2001 0.29 0.31 0.28 0.28 0.30
2004 0.29 0.31 0.28 0.30 0.31
2007 0.30 0.34 0.29 0.30 0.31
2010 0.30 0.38 0.28 0.30 0.32
2013 0.31 0.37 0.29 0.30 0.32
2016 0.34 0.37 0.32 0.30 0.36
2019 0.33 N/A 0.31 N/A 0.35

Source: Federal Reserve Board, Survey of Consumer Finances, WID, and Smith, Zidar, and Zwick (2020).

Notes: Figure shows share of wealth held by 90th–99th wealth percentiles (Next 9) and wealthiest 1 percent (Top 1), 1989–2019. Shaded region shows bootstrap standard error around SZZ top 1 share.

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Figure E. SCF Bulletin income distribution

Share earned by income group

  Bottom 508 Next 40 Next 9 Standard Error (Bottom) Top 1 Standard Error (Top)
1989 0.16 0.42 0.25 0.12 0.17 0.20
1992 0.17 0.46 0.26 0.10 0.12 0.13
1995 0.17 0.44 0.25 0.13 0.14 0.16
1998 0.16 0.43 0.24 0.15 0.17 0.19
2001 0.15 0.40 0.26 0.15 0.19 0.22
2004 0.16 0.41 0.26 0.16 0.17 0.19
2007 0.15 0.38 0.26 0.20 0.21 0.23
2010 0.16 0.40 0.27 0.16 0.17 0.19
2013 0.14 0.38 0.27 0.18 0.20 0.22
2016 0.13 0.36 0.26 0.21 0.24 0.26
2019 0.15 0.39 0.27 0.18 0.19 0.21

Source: Federal Reserve Board, Survey of Consumer Finances.

Notes: Figure shows the share of income earned by the Bottom 50 income percentiles, 50th–90th income percentiles (Next 40), 90th–99th income percentiles (Next 9) and Top 1 percent, 1989–2019. Shaded region shows bootstrap standard errors around Top 1 income share.

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Figure F. Augmented SCF and WID income distributions
  SCF prefinc WID national inc
nxt40 nxt9 top1 nxt40 nxt9 top1
1989 0.42 0.24 0.15 0.44 0.24 0.15
1995 0.45 0.23 0.13 0.44 0.25 0.15
1998 0.43 0.23 0.15 0.43 0.26 0.17
2001 0.41 0.24 0.17 0.41 0.26 0.18
2004 0.42 0.24 0.15 0.43 0.25 0.17
2007 0.40 0.24 0.19 0.40 0.26 0.20
2010 0.42 0.24 0.15 0.42 0.26 0.18
2013 0.40 0.24 0.17 0.40 0.26 0.21
2016 0.38 0.24 0.20 0.40 0.27 0.20
2019 0.41 0.24 0.17 0.41 0.26 0.21

Source: Federal Reserve Board, Survey of Consumer Finances, and WID.

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Last Update: September 28, 2020