Average Retirement Savings for Married Couples by Age: 2025 Federal Reserve Data

By Craig Wear, CFP® | Last reviewed: November 1, 2026

Average retirement savings for married couples by age, per the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances: among married or partnered households holding accounts, the median combined balance is $30,500 under 35, $80,000 at 35 to 44, $200,000 at 45 to 54, $377,000 at 55 to 64, $300,000 at 65 to 74 and $436,000 at 75 or older.

What do married couples have in retirement accounts at each age?

Married or partnered households that hold a retirement account reach a median combined balance of $377,000 when the reference person is 55 to 64, and the mean for the same group is $870,200. Those figures come from a Q3 tabulation of the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) public summary extract, released in October 2026, in 2025 dollars.

Every figure is a household total: the SCF adds both partners’ IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s and other account plans into one number, so $377,000 for a couple aged 55 to 64 is roughly $188,500 per adult if split evenly. The age column is the age of the SCF “reference person,” which the Fed’s 2025 report (appendix A) defines as the male in a mixed-sex couple or the older partner in a same-sex couple. Because husbands are often a few years older, a couple in the 55 to 64 row can include a spouse who is 52.

The median for all married households, counting the 25.4% to 42.8% in each band with no account, is far lower: $140,000 at 55 to 64 and $60,000 at 65 to 74. An earlier Q3 by-age table drew on the 2022 survey in 2022 dollars, and the 2025 survey now supersedes it in Q3’s retirement planning guide for couples.

How far ahead of single households are married couples?

Married couples are more likely to hold an account and hold far larger balances at every age: at 55 to 64 the married median among holders is $377,000 against $70,000 for unmarried households, a 5.4 to 1 ratio. Halving the couple’s balance to $188,500 per adult still leaves it 2.7 times the single median, so two earners explain only part of the gap.

Income tracks the savings gap closely. Married households aged 45 to 54 reported a median 2024 income of $154,100, 2.7 times the $56,500 single median, and higher pay means larger deferrals and larger employer matches. At 65 and older the single column is dominated by widowed people, so part of a couple’s balance often reappears there a few years later under one name. The same married versus single split for total wealth appears in retiree net worth data by marital status.

Why is the married-couple average two to three times the median?

A small group of couples with seven-figure balances pulls the mean up: for married holders aged 65 to 74, the 90th percentile is $2,450,000 while the median is $300,000, so the mean lands at $913,700, about 3.0 times the median. For comparing one couple’s balance with peers, the median and the percentile bands are the closer reference.

The spread inside each band is wide. A married couple aged 45 to 54 with $65,000 sits at the 25th percentile of holders, while one with $580,000 sits at the 75th, a ninefold difference among households of the same age. Many widely shared “married couple” tables are actually all-family SCF 2022 figures or per-account 401(k) recordkeeper averages, which is why they show a 55 to 64 median near $185,000 instead of the married-only $377,000 above. Employer-plan balances alone, by age band, are in average 401(k) balance by age.

What share of married couples have no retirement account?

One in three married or partnered households, 33.7%, held no retirement account in the 2025 SCF, compared with 59.4% of single households. The married share without an account is lowest at ages 45 to 64 (25.4% to 25.5%) and highest under 35 (42.3%) and at 75 and older (42.8%).

Ownership drops from 74.6% at 55 to 64 to 61.1% at 65 to 74. The SCF is a cross section, so that drop compares two different groups of couples in 2025; it is not a measure of the same couples emptying accounts. Some older couples also rely on defined benefit pensions, which the account measure leaves out. The share of all families with no retirement savings, 45.1%, and how it changes with income is covered in the data on Americans with no retirement savings.

Did married couples’ retirement balances grow from 2022 to 2025?

Yes, for most ages: the median among married holders of all ages rose from $124,200 to $153,000 (23.2%) after inflation, and ownership edged up from 65.6% to 66.3%. Both surveys are measured in 2025 dollars; the Fed’s own Table A.1 inflates 2022 asset values by a factor of 1.0944 using the current-methods CPI-U (CPI-U-RS).

Single age cells rest on 286 to 708 sampled married households each, so swings such as the 121.3% jump at 75 and older or the 8.6% dip at 65 to 74 carry wide sampling error and should not be read as a trend for those cohorts. The all-ages method reproduces the Fed’s published totals exactly: 54.9% ownership, a $106,000 median and a $451,100 mean for all families in 2025, which is the check that the weights and definitions are right.

What can a married couple add to retirement accounts in 2026?

A married couple has two sets of limits, because 401(k) deferrals and IRA contributions attach to each person: in 2026 each spouse can defer $24,500 to a 401(k), 403(b), 457 or TSP, plus $8,000 at 50 or older ($11,250 at ages 60 to 63), and contribute $7,500 to an IRA, $8,600 at 50 or older, per the IRS 2026 limits announcement.

Worked example (Q3 calculation using 2026 IRS figures; hypothetical household): a couple, both 58 and both covered by a workplace plan, holds the married 55 to 64 median of $377,000. Two 401(k) deferrals of $32,500 plus two IRA contributions of $8,600 total $82,200 of employee contribution room for 2026, equal to 21.8% of that median balance and double the $41,100 available to a single 58-year-old. If both turn 60 to 63, the catch-up rises to $11,250 and the couple’s room becomes $88,700. Using it all would take 55% of the $148,900 median income for married households in this age band, so the ceiling binds only for higher-income couples.

Three income tests change what the couple can do. The traditional IRA deduction for a spouse covered at work phases out between $129,000 and $149,000 of modified AGI on a joint return, and the median married income at 55 to 64 sits at the top of that range. Direct Roth IRA contributions phase out between $242,000 and $252,000 for joint filers; 24.8% of married households aged 55 to 64 reported 2024 income above $252,000 (SCF income is not MAGI, so this is a rough proxy). A spouse with little or no pay can still fund an IRA from the couple’s combined compensation under IRC section 219(c), as laid out in the spousal IRA rules for 2026. The catch-up schedule by age is in the 2026 catch-up contribution guide.

Whose account is it when one spouse dies?

The SCF’s combined balance is a household number, but federal law treats each account as one person’s: under IRC section 408(g), the IRA rules apply “without regard to any community property laws,” and a 401(k) generally must pay a deceased participant’s vested balance to the surviving spouse unless that spouse consented otherwise.

The 401(k) rule comes from IRC section 401(a)(11)(B)(iii), which exempts a defined contribution plan from the joint and survivor annuity rules only if the full vested balance goes to the surviving spouse at death, and IRC section 417(a)(2), which requires the spouse’s written consent to any other beneficiary, witnessed by a plan representative or a notary public. IRAs carry no federal spousal consent right. With IRAs holding 68.1% of retirement account dollars for married households aged 65 to 74 (Q3 tabulation, SCF 2025), most of an older couple’s savings sits in accounts where the beneficiary form alone decides who inherits, which makes reviewing both spouses’ IRA beneficiary forms a concrete item for couples whose 401(k)s were rolled over.

Taxes on those balances change after the first death. A joint return is still allowed for the year of death under IRC section 6013(a)(2); after that, the “surviving spouse” status in IRC section 2(a) lasts two more years only for a survivor maintaining a home for a dependent child, as IRS Publication 501 describes. Otherwise the single schedule applies: the 24% bracket tops out at $201,775 instead of $403,550, and the standard deduction falls from $32,200 (plus $1,650 per spouse 65 or older) to $16,100 plus $2,050 for a survivor 65 or older (Rev. Proc. 2025-32).

The required minimum distribution does not shrink with the household. At age 73 the Uniform Lifetime Table divisor is 26.5 (Treas. Reg. section 1.401(a)(9)-9(c)), so the $913,700 mean balance for married holders aged 65 to 74 implies a first RMD of $34,479, and the $300,000 median implies $11,321, taxed on whichever return the owner files. The cost of the bracket shift is quantified in Q3’s widow’s penalty analysis for 2026. The two-year window is covered in the qualifying surviving spouse rules. Some couples weigh converting part of a pre-tax balance while both spouses can still use the joint brackets; the sizing math is in how much to convert to a Roth.

How were these SCF figures calculated?

Every table on this page is a Q3 tabulation of the Federal Reserve’s public SCF 2025 and SCF 2022 files, weighted to represent 135.0 million families, with couples identified by the MARRIED variable and balances measured by the Fed’s RETQLIQ retirement account total. The same Federal Reserve files show how rare $2 million in retirement accounts is.

Frequently asked questions

This article is for educational purposes only and is not individualized investment, tax, or legal advice. Consult a qualified professional about your specific situation.