Roth accounts hold at least 7.2% of the $33.4 trillion sitting in U.S. individual retirement accounts and defined-contribution plans at year-end 2025, and Roth IRAs alone are 12.5% of the $19.2 trillion IRA book, even as Roth’s share of that IRA book has risen in each of the last three measured years (Source: ICI 2026 Investment Company Fact Book, 2026).
Executive summary
- U.S. Roth IRA assets totaled $2.4 trillion at year-end 2025, equal to 12.5% of all IRA assets and 7.2% of combined IRA and defined-contribution assets, a lower bound for all-Roth because Roth 401(k) dollars are excluded from the numerator (Source: ICI 2026 Investment Company Fact Book, 2026).
- Traditional and employer-sponsored (pre-tax) IRAs held $16.8 trillion, or 87.5% of the U.S. IRA book at year-end 2025, a gap of 75.0 percentage points over Roth IRAs (Source: ICI 2026 Investment Company Fact Book, 2026).
- Roth’s share of the U.S. IRA book climbed from 10.4% (2023) to 11.8% (2024) to 12.5% (2025), a rise of roughly one percentage point per year (Source: CRS Report R48456, 2025; ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026).
- Over the decade from 2014 to 2025, Roth IRA assets grew from $600 billion to $2.4 trillion, a fourfold increase, lifting Roth’s share of the IRA book from 8.2% to 12.5% (Source: CRS Report R48456, 2025; ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026).
- Roth funding behavior runs ahead of Roth’s stock: 72% of newly opened Roth IRAs in 2023 were funded solely by contributions, while 77% of newly opened traditional IRAs were funded solely by rollovers of pre-tax employer-plan dollars (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, Fig. 8.12, 2026).
- The Federal Reserve’s Financial Accounts (Z.1) combine Roth and traditional balances in a single IRA line and fold designated Roth 401(k) into total DC, so no U.S. statistical agency publishes a complete Roth-versus-pre-tax split (Source: Federal Reserve Z.1, Table L.117, 2026).
- Because designated Roth 401(k) and 403(b) dollars are not published as a market aggregate, the 7.2% headline is a documented lower bound, and a complete Roth share of IRA plus DC cannot be computed from published data (Source: ICI/Federal Reserve, 2026).
Key findings
- Roth IRA assets stood at $2.4 trillion in the United States at year-end 2025 (Source: ICI 2026 Investment Company Fact Book, Fig. 8.11, 2026).
- Roth IRAs represented 12.5% of the $19.2 trillion U.S. IRA book at year-end 2025, versus 87.5% for traditional and employer-sponsored IRAs (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026).
- Roth IRAs equaled 7.2% of the combined $33.4 trillion U.S. IRA-plus-DC pool at year-end 2025, a lower bound that excludes unmeasured Roth 401(k) dollars (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026; derived by Q3 Advisors).
- Roth IRAs equaled 4.9% of the full $49.1 trillion U.S. retirement market at year-end 2025 (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026; derived by Q3 Advisors).
- Total U.S. retirement assets reached $49.1 trillion at year-end 2025, up 11.2% year over year and equal to 34% of household financial assets (Source: ICI, The US Retirement Market Q4 2025, 2026).
- Roth’s share of the U.S. IRA book rose from 8.2% (2014) to 9.7% (2020) to 12.5% (2025) (Source: CRS Report R48456, 2025; ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026).
- Among Roth IRA inflows in 2020, 40.6% came from conversions, 38.8% from direct contributions, and 20.6% from rollovers (Source: CRS Report R48456, 2025, citing ICI Q3 2024).
- Among traditional IRA inflows in 2020, 96.4% came from rollovers and only 3.6% from direct contributions (Source: CRS Report R48456, 2025, citing ICI Q3 2024).
- In 2023, 72% of newly opened U.S. Roth IRAs were funded solely by contributions, against 77% of new traditional IRAs funded solely by rollovers (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, Fig. 8.12, 2026).
- The median U.S. Roth IRA-owning household head was age 51 at year-end 2025, eleven years younger than the age-62 median for traditional IRA owners (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, Fig. 8.11, 2026).
- A Roth 401(k) option was offered by 86% of Vanguard-recordkept plans at year-end 2024, and 18% of eligible participants elected it, a record for that sample (Source: Vanguard, How America Saves 2025, 2025).
- Total U.S. defined-contribution assets were $14.2 trillion at year-end 2025, of which 401(k) plans held $10.1 trillion (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, Ch. 8, 2026).
- 58 million U.S. households owned IRAs in 2024, and 30.1% (about 30%) of U.S. households held IRA savings in the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances (Source: ICI 2025 Fact Book, 2025; CRS Report R48456, 2025, citing Federal Reserve SCF, 2022).
- On distribution, the roughly 93% of IRA-plus-DC assets that are not Roth IRA are taxed as ordinary income, not capital gains, and feed Required Minimum Distributions (Source: IRS Pub 590-B, 2026).
The metric: what “Roth share of retirement assets” measures
This briefing tracks one index: Roth accounts as a share of total U.S. IRA and defined-contribution retirement assets, measured in published dollar aggregates. Roth accounts hold after-tax contributions and pay qualified withdrawals tax-free. Traditional and pre-tax accounts hold before-tax dollars taxed as ordinary income on withdrawal. The metric isolates how much of the retirement stock has already been taxed.
The Investment Company Institute publishes the only recurring Roth-versus-pre-tax dollar split, and it exists at the IRA level. Roth IRA assets were $2.4 trillion in the United States at year-end 2025 (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026). Total IRA assets were $19.2 trillion the same date (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026). Total defined-contribution assets were $14.2 trillion at year-end 2025 (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026). The full U.S. retirement market, including defined-benefit plans and annuity reserves, was $49.1 trillion (Source: ICI, The US Retirement Market Q4 2025, 2026).
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Three denominators produce three defensible readings, shown below. The narrowest and cleanest is Roth IRA as a share of the IRA book, where both numerator and denominator carry an explicit Roth classification.
| Basis (year-end 2025, U.S.) | Roth IRA assets | Denominator | Roth share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total U.S. retirement market | $2.4T | $49.1T | 4.9% |
| IRA plus defined-contribution | $2.4T | $33.4T | 7.2% (lower bound) |
| IRA book only | $2.4T | $19.2T | 12.5% |
The 7.2% and 4.9% figures are lower bounds because designated Roth 401(k) and 403(b) balances are not published as a market aggregate and therefore cannot be added to the numerator (Source: ICI/Federal Reserve, 2026). The IRA-book reading of 12.5% is the fully classified figure and anchors the trend analysis that follows.
The core data table: Roth versus pre-tax IRA assets, 2014 to 2025
This is the citable time series. Dollar figures are in billions, not inflation-adjusted, and figures for 2021 through 2023 are ICI estimates as flagged by the Congressional Research Service (Source: CRS Report R48456, 2025). Employer-sponsored IRAs (SEP, SAR-SEP, SIMPLE) are historically classified with pre-tax accounts. Components may not sum exactly because of rounding.
| Year-end (U.S.) | Traditional IRA ($B) | Roth IRA ($B) | Employer IRA ($B) | Total IRA ($B) | Roth % of IRA | Non-Roth % of IRA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 6,225 | 600 | 467 | 7,292 | 8.2% | 91.8% |
| 2020 | 10,722 | 1,233 | 706 | 12,661 | 9.7% | 90.3% |
| 2023 (est.) | 11,441 | 1,405 | 710 | 13,556 | 10.4% | 89.6% |
| 2024 | 14,100 | 2,000 | ~900 | 17,000 | 11.8% | 88.2% |
| 2025 | 15,900 | 2,400 | ~900 | 19,200 | 12.5% | 87.5% |
The pattern is a slow, one-directional climb. Roth’s share of the IRA book rose 4.3 percentage points across the decade, from 8.2% in 2014 to 12.5% in 2025 (Source: CRS Report R48456, 2025; ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026). In dollar terms Roth IRA assets quadrupled over the same window, from $600 billion to $2.4 trillion. The pre-tax book still dwarfs it: traditional plus employer IRAs grew from about $6.7 trillion to $16.8 trillion.
Comparability caveat. The 2014 through 2023 rows are Congressional Research Service values that rest on ICI estimates, while the 2024 and 2025 rows are ICI-reported year-end aggregates, so the series splices two source bases at the 2023-to-2024 seam (Source: CRS Report R48456, 2025; ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026). The single-year change across that seam is unusually large, about a 25% rise in total IRA assets (13,556 to 17,000) and about a 42% rise in Roth IRA assets (1,405 to 2,000), which reflects the change of source basis alongside market and flow growth. Year-over-year changes that straddle the CRS-estimated and ICI-reported segments are therefore not strictly comparable, and the “roughly one percentage point per year” description of the 2023 to 2025 share path should be read with that discontinuity in mind.
Roth versus pre-tax: why the stock stays pre-tax heavy
The stock is pre-tax heavy because of how money enters IRAs. Most new IRA dollars are not fresh contributions at all; they are rollovers of pre-tax balances leaving employer plans. In 2020, traditional IRA inflows totaled $616.9 billion, of which 96.4% were rollovers (Source: CRS Report R48456, 2025). Roth IRA inflows totaled $85 billion that year, split 40.6% conversions, 38.8% contributions, and 20.6% rollovers (Source: CRS Report R48456, 2025).
New-account behavior tells the same story from the other side. In 2023, 77% of newly opened traditional IRAs were funded solely by rollovers, while 72% of newly opened Roth IRAs were funded solely by contributions (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, Fig. 8.12, 2026). Contributions are capped at $7,500 for 2026, so a contribution-fed account grows far more slowly than a rollover-fed one that can absorb an entire 401(k) balance at once (Source: IRS, 2026). That structural asymmetry keeps the pre-tax stock ahead even as Roth ownership skews younger, with a median Roth owner age of 51 against 62 for traditional owners (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026).
| 2020 inflow source (U.S.) | Roth IRA | Traditional IRA |
|---|---|---|
| Conversions | 40.6% | Not applicable |
| Direct contributions | 38.8% | 3.6% |
| Rollovers | 20.6% | 96.4% |
| Total inflows | $85.0B | $616.9B |
Roth in defined-contribution plans: the unmeasured slice
Roth exists inside 401(k) and 403(b) plans as designated Roth accounts, but no source publishes those balances as a market aggregate. The Federal Reserve Z.1 folds designated Roth into total defined-contribution assets and combines Roth and traditional inside one IRA line, and its own footnote describes the tax-deferred accounts as “including employer sponsored pension plans, IRAs, Roth IRAs, and annuities” without separating them (Source: Federal Reserve Z.1, Table L.117, 2026). ICI likewise publishes no Roth-versus-pre-tax split at the DC level.
Recordkeeper data confirms these balances exist but cannot size the national dollar total. In the Vanguard sample, 86% of plans offered a Roth 401(k) option at year-end 2024, and 18% of eligible participants used it, a record for that dataset (Source: Vanguard, How America Saves 2025, 2025). That is participation, not aggregate dollars, so it is excluded from the metric numerator. The result is a genuine measurement gap: the true Roth share of IRA plus DC is above 7.2%, but by an amount no published aggregate can quantify.
The Roth Flow-to-Stock Gap and an illustrative crossover
The organizing idea is a gap between two things every existing publisher measures separately: Roth’s share of the existing retirement stock, and Roth’s momentum in new and converted money. ICI owns the stock. Recordkeepers own the flow. Set side by side, Roth holds 12.5% of the IRA stock yet shows flow signals well above that level, from a majority of new Roth accounts being contribution-built to Roth 401(k) adoption at a record 18% (Sources: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026; Vanguard, 2025).
Quantified on the cleanest verified basis, the gap is visible in the trajectory itself: Roth’s share of the IRA book rose about one percentage point per year from 2023 to 2025 (10.4%, 11.8%, 12.5%), while the pre-tax share fell by the same amount (Source: CRS Report R48456, 2025; ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026). A precise national “Roth share of contribution dollars” is not published, so the gap is expressed through this verified share trajectory and the verified funding-behavior signals above, not through an unpublished flow-dollar aggregate.
An illustrative crossover, the year Roth IRA assets could match traditional IRA assets, follows from projecting each stock forward at its own recent growth rate. The method and its limits are in Original synthesis below. On a 2023-to-2025 basis the base case lands in the early 2040s; on a slower single-year 2024-to-2025 basis it lands in the mid-2050s. It is illustrative, not a forecast.
Why the pre-tax concentration matters for taxes
Roughly 93% of the $33.4 trillion IRA-plus-DC pool is not Roth IRA, and on withdrawal those dollars are taxed as ordinary income rather than at capital-gains rates (Source: IRS Pub 590-B, 2026). That concentration is the base for future ordinary-income tax and for Required Minimum Distributions, whose start ages of 73, or 75 for those born in 1960 or later, are set by the SECURE 2.0 Act, with the RMD dollar amount then computed from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table (Source: SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022; IRS Pub 590-B, 2026). Large pre-tax balances can also raise U.S. Medicare income-related surcharges, which start above $109,000 of modified adjusted gross income for a single filer in 2026 (Source: CMS/SSA, 2026).
The 2026 U.S. federal rate schedule of 10% to 37% was made permanent by the 2025 OBBBA law, which removes the prior scheduled sunset that had framed many conversion timelines (Source: OBBBA, P.L. 119-21, 2025). Readers weighing how these mechanics interact can review Q3 Advisors resources on Roth conversion, how much to convert to Roth, Required Minimum Distributions for 2026, and Medicare IRMAA 2026 brackets. None of this is individual advice.
Original synthesis
Three derived insights follow, each with formula, inputs, and limitations so it can be reproduced.
1. The lower-bound Roth share of IRA plus DC (year-end 2025)
Formula: Roth IRA assets divided by (total IRA assets plus total DC assets). Inputs: Roth IRA $2.4T; total IRA $19.2T; total DC $14.2T, all from ICI 2026 Fact Book (2026). Calculation: 2.4 / (19.2 + 14.2) = 2.4 / 33.4 = 7.2%. Complement: 92.8% is pre-tax or unmeasured Roth DC. Limitation: designated Roth 401(k)/403(b) dollars sit unmeasured inside the $14.2T DC total, so the true share exceeds 7.2% by an unknown amount; Roth IRA totals are ICI estimates.
2. The decade change in Roth’s IRA-book share
Formula: Roth percent of IRA in 2025 minus Roth percent of IRA in 2014. Inputs: 2014 Roth $600B of $7,292B total IRA (8.2%); 2025 Roth $2,400B of $19,200B (12.5%), from CRS R48456 (2025) and ICI 2026 Fact Book (2026). Calculation: 12.5% minus 8.2% = 4.3 percentage points; dollar growth $600B to $2,400B is a fourfold increase. Limitation: not inflation-adjusted; 2021-2023 values are ICI estimates; asset levels move with markets.
3. Illustrative Roth-versus-traditional IRA crossover year
Formula: solve 2,400 times (1 plus g_R) to the power t equals 15,900 times (1 plus g_T) to the power t, where g_R and g_T are compound annual growth rates. Inputs (ICI 2026 Fact Book and CRS R48456): Roth IRA $1,405B (2023) to $2,400B (2025) gives g_R of 30.7%; traditional IRA $11,441B to $15,900B gives g_T of 17.9%. Solution: t equals about 18.3 years, a base-case crossover near 2043. A slower single-year 2024-to-2025 basis (g_R 20.0%, g_T 12.8%) pushes t to about 30 years, near 2055. Limitations: the 2023-2025 differential partly reflects a specific bull-market window and a low Roth base; it assumes constant growth rates and no policy change; it is explicitly illustrative and is not a promise of any outcome. Read the sensitivity range, early 2040s to mid-2050s, not any single year, as the takeaway.
Figures
Methodology
Source selection. Priority went to primary aggregates: the Investment Company Institute, the compiler the Federal Reserve and Congress themselves cite for U.S. retirement-asset totals and the origin of the Roth-versus-traditional IRA split; the Congressional Research Service for the 2014-2023 time series; the Federal Reserve Financial Accounts (Z.1) and Survey of Consumer Finances as cross-checks; and IRS and CMS statutory anchors for tax framing.
Inclusion and exclusion. Only published dollar aggregates entered the metric. Designated Roth 401(k)/403(b) balances were excluded from the numerator because no market-aggregate dollar figure exists, making the 7.2% and 4.9% figures documented lower bounds. Recordkeeper participation rates (Vanguard) were used only as context, never in the metric. Retail and brokerage explainer pages were excluded for lacking primary aggregates.
Handling conflicts and estimates. Where a quarterly workbook was inaccessible (HTTP 403), the year-end 2025 Roth IRA figure of $2.4 trillion was taken instead from the verified 2026 Fact Book. Derived shares state their formula and inputs. ICI-estimated years (2021-2023) are flagged. Figures are not inflation-adjusted and move with markets.
Last updated. July 2026, using year-end 2025 aggregates released in early 2026.
Source quality ranking
Tier 1 (primary, government, canonical compiler). ICI 2026 Investment Company Fact Book (Ch. 8, Figs. 8.5, 8.11, 8.12) and The US Retirement Market, Q4 2025, source of the $49.1T market, $19.2T IRA, $14.2T DC, $15.9T traditional IRA, and $2.4T Roth IRA figures. Congressional Research Service Report R48456 (Table 1), the 2014-2023 series and the 84.4% / 10.4% / 5.2% 2023 split. Federal Reserve Financial Accounts (Z.1), Table L.117, and the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances, used as DC/IRA cross-check and for the note that the Fed does not split Roth from traditional. IRS Pub 590-B and CMS 2026 anchors, tax framing only.
Tier 2 (credible research, public-company, trade). Vanguard How America Saves 2025, Roth 401(k) offer and adoption rates, a recordkeeper sample not a market aggregate, used only as context. Trade press citing ICI, used only to locate figures.
Tier 3 (reputable delivery channels). PR Newswire hosting of the ICI Q4 2025 release and re-posts, treated as delivery of ICI’s own Tier 1 content and back-checked against the Fact Book.
Excluded. Retail and brokerage investor-education pages and general aggregators (no primary aggregate data); the ICI quarterly data workbook for a Q4 2025 Roth dollar figure (file returned HTTP 403 and could not be verified); and any designated Roth 401(k)/403(b) aggregate dollar total (not published by ICI or the Federal Reserve).
Most quotable statistics
- Roth holds 1 in 8 IRA dollars (12.5%) and at least 7.2% of combined U.S. IRA and defined-contribution assets at year-end 2025 (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026).
- U.S. Roth IRA assets reached $2.4 trillion at year-end 2025, up fourfold from $600 billion in 2014 (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026; CRS R48456, 2025).
- Pre-tax IRAs held $16.8 trillion, or 87.5% of the U.S. IRA book, at year-end 2025 (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026).
- 96.4% of traditional IRA inflows in 2020 were rollovers of pre-tax employer-plan dollars, versus 3.6% fresh contributions (Source: CRS R48456, 2025).
- 72% of newly opened U.S. Roth IRAs in 2023 were funded solely by contributions (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026).
- 86% of Vanguard-recordkept plans offered a Roth 401(k) at year-end 2024, and 18% of eligible participants used it (Source: Vanguard, 2025).
- The median U.S. Roth IRA owner was age 51 in 2025, eleven years younger than the median traditional IRA owner (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026).
Data limitations
- No U.S. source publishes designated Roth 401(k)/403(b) balances as a market aggregate, so the 7.2% and 4.9% figures are lower bounds and a complete Roth share of IRA plus DC cannot be computed (Source: ICI/Federal Reserve, 2026).
- Roth IRA totals are ICI estimates, and quarterly figures are restated in later releases (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026).
- The 2014-2025 core table splices two source bases: 2014-2023 are CRS values resting on ICI estimates and 2024-2025 are ICI-reported aggregates, producing a large 2023-to-2024 seam (about +25% total IRA and +42% Roth IRA) that reflects the source change as well as market and flow growth, so year-over-year changes across that seam are not strictly comparable (Source: CRS Report R48456, 2025; ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026).
- Traditional IRA totals include rollover IRAs (overwhelmingly pre-tax), and the aggregates do not isolate rollover dollars (Source: CRS R48456, 2025).
- Figures are not inflation-adjusted and move with market levels quarter to quarter (Source: ICI, 2026).
- A precise national share of contribution dollars going to Roth is not published; the closest verified proxies are new-account funding behavior and 2020 inflow composition (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book; CRS R48456, 2025).
- Generation-level Roth-share-of-savings figures and year-over-year conversion-growth figures are not available as verified U.S. aggregates and are excluded from this report.
- The crossover year is an illustrative extrapolation, not a forecast, and is sensitive to the growth window chosen.
Recommended dataset fields
A downloadable version of this asset would carry, per year and per account type: year-end date; geography (U.S.); account category (traditional IRA, Roth IRA, employer-sponsored IRA, 401(k), 403(b), 457, TSP); assets in current dollars; Roth share of category; Roth share of IRA plus DC; estimate flag (ICI-estimated versus reported); inflow composition (contributions, conversions, rollovers); median owner age; and the primary source citation with figure or table number for each cell.
Press summary (150 words)
Roth accounts remain a minority of U.S. retirement money. At year-end 2025, Roth IRAs held $2.4 trillion, equal to 12.5% of the $19.2 trillion IRA book and 7.2% of the combined $33.4 trillion IRA-plus-defined-contribution pool, a lower bound for all-Roth because Roth 401(k) balances are not published as an aggregate (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026). Pre-tax accounts held the other 87.5% of the IRA book, or $16.8 trillion. The share is rising about one point per year, from 10.4% in 2023 to 12.5% in 2025, because Roth attracts younger savers and most new Roth accounts are contribution-built, while traditional balances are fed by pre-tax 401(k) rollovers (96.4% of 2020 traditional inflows). An illustrative projection places a Roth-versus-traditional IRA crossover in the early 2040s to mid-2050s. It is illustrative, not a forecast, and no U.S. agency publishes a full Roth-versus-pre-tax split.
Suggested headlines
- Roth Holds 1 in 8 IRA Dollars and at Least 7.2% of U.S. Retirement Accounts (2025)
- The $2.4 Trillion Roth Book: 12.5% of IRAs, and Climbing a Point a Year
- Why 87.5% of U.S. IRA Money Is Still Pre-Tax at Year-End 2025
- Roth’s Flow-to-Stock Gap: Younger Savers, Older Balances, One Slow Crossover
- No U.S. Agency Fully Measures Roth’s Share of Retirement Assets. Here Is the Verified Floor.
Work with Q3 Advisors
Q3 Advisors is a registered investment adviser focused on retirement tax planning. This report is educational and is not advice; consult a qualified tax or financial professional.
Frequently asked questions
What percent of total U.S. retirement assets are held in Roth accounts?
Roth IRAs held $2.4 trillion at year-end 2025, equal to 4.9% of the $49.1 trillion total U.S. retirement market and 7.2% of the $33.4 trillion IRA-plus-defined-contribution subset (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026). Both are lower bounds because designated Roth 401(k) balances are not published as an aggregate and are excluded from the numerator.
What share of IRA assets are in Roth IRAs versus traditional IRAs?
At year-end 2025, Roth IRAs held 12.5% of the $19.2 trillion U.S. IRA book ($2.4 trillion), while traditional and employer-sponsored pre-tax IRAs held 87.5% ($16.8 trillion, of which $15.9 trillion was traditional) (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026). The gap between the two on the IRA book was 75.0 percentage points.
What percent of new IRA contributions go to Roth IRAs?
No U.S. source publishes a precise national share of contribution dollars going to Roth, so this report does not assert one. The closest verified proxy: in 2023, 72% of newly opened U.S. Roth IRAs were funded solely by contributions, and among Roth IRA inflows in 2020, 38.8% were direct contributions (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book; CRS R48456, 2025).
What percent of Gen Z retirement contributions go into Roth accounts?
A verified U.S. market aggregate for Gen Z Roth contribution share was not available at publication, so this report excludes a figure rather than assert an unverified one. What is documented: the median Roth IRA owner was age 51 in 2025 versus 62 for traditional, indicating Roth skews younger (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026).
How much money is held in Roth IRAs in dollars?
U.S. Roth IRA assets totaled $2.4 trillion at year-end 2025, up from $2.0 trillion at year-end 2024 and $600 billion in 2014 (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026; CRS R48456, 2025). The Roth IRA total is an ICI estimate, and quarterly readings are restated in later releases.
What percent of 401(k) participants contribute to a Roth 401(k)?
In the Vanguard recordkeeper sample, 18% of eligible participants in plans offering the feature elected a Roth 401(k) at year-end 2024, a record for that dataset, while 86% of those plans offered it (Source: Vanguard, How America Saves 2025, 2025). This is a plan sample, not a national market aggregate.
How much did Roth conversion activity increase over the past year?
A verified year-over-year U.S. conversion-growth figure was not available at publication, so this report does not assert one. What is documented: conversions made up 40.6% of Roth IRA inflows in 2020, the largest single inflow source that year (Source: CRS R48456, 2025, citing ICI Q3 2024).
What percent of Roth IRA inflows come from conversions versus direct contributions?
Among U.S. Roth IRA inflows in 2020, the most recent year in the source, 40.6% came from conversions, 38.8% from direct contributions, and 20.6% from rollovers, on total inflows of $85 billion (Source: CRS R48456, 2025, citing ICI Q3 2024). Conversions and contributions were nearly even.
What percent of Gen Z’s and Millennials’ retirement savings sits in Roth IRAs?
A verified generation-level Roth-share-of-savings statistic for the United States was not available at publication and is excluded rather than estimated. The available age signal is ownership skew: the median U.S. Roth IRA owner was age 51 in 2025, against 62 for traditional IRA owners (Source: ICI 2026 Fact Book, 2026).
What percent of employer defined-contribution plans now offer a Roth option?
In the Vanguard recordkeeper sample, 86% of plans offered a Roth 401(k) option at year-end 2024 (Source: Vanguard, How America Saves 2025, 2025). This is a large recordkeeper sample rather than a full-market census, so it indicates prevalence but is not a national plan-count aggregate.
Sources
Investment Company Institute, “2026 Investment Company Fact Book,” Chapter 8, Figures 8.5, 8.11, and 8.12 (year-end 2025 data), 2026.
Investment Company Institute, “The US Retirement Market, Fourth Quarter 2025,” released March 26, 2026.
Investment Company Institute, “2025 Investment Company Fact Book,” Chapter 8 (year-end 2024 data), 2025.
Congressional Research Service, Report R48456, “Traditional, Roth, and Rollover IRA Ownership in 2022,” Table 1 (source: ICI, “The US Retirement Market, Third Quarter 2024,” Tables 10-13), 2025.
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Financial Accounts of the United States (Z.1), Table L.117, “Private and Public Pension Funds,” 2025:Q4 release, 2026; and Survey of Consumer Finances, 2022.
Vanguard, “How America Saves 2025,” 2025.
Internal Revenue Service, Publication 590-B and 2026 contribution and Required Minimum Distribution parameters, 2026.
SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (Division T of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023), Required Minimum Distribution start ages.
One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), P.L. 119-21, 2025, permanence of the 10% to 37% federal individual income-tax rate schedule.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Social Security Administration, 2026 Medicare Part B premium and income-related surcharge tiers, 2026.