The average net worth of retirees is close to $1.9 million, yet the typical household headed by someone 65 or older holds about $448,500, and more than half of that middle-household wealth is the house.
The average net worth of retirees, measured as households headed by someone 65 to 74, was $1,897,600 in the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, and $1,962,200 for those 75 and older. Medians were far lower at $431,300 and $504,900, because a small number of very wealthy households lift the averages roughly fourfold.
By Craig Wear, CFP® | Last reviewed: October 26, 2026
Key Takeaways
- The Fed’s 2025 survey, released October 9, 2026, reports mean net worth of $1,897,600 and a median of $431,300 for families aged 65 to 74, and $1,962,200 and $504,900 for families 75 and older, all in 2025 dollars (Federal Reserve, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025, Table 2).
- In five-year bands, median net worth was $436,800 at 65 to 69, $424,400 at 70 to 74, $415,600 at 75 to 79 and $567,600 at 80 and older (Q3 tabulation of the SCF 2025 public data).
- Take the home out and the median household 65 or older drops from $448,500 to $160,400 of net worth (Q3 tabulation, SCF 2025).
- For the middle fifth of older households (40th to 60th percentile), home equity is 58% of net worth and retirement accounts only 12%; just 47% of those households own any retirement account (Q3 tabulation, SCF 2025).
- Retirement accounts held by households 65 and older totaled about $14.7 trillion in 2025, up from $10.6 trillion in 2022 in 2025 dollars, and rose from 15.2% to 19.2% of their combined net worth (Q3 tabulation, SCF 2022 and 2025).
- Retired couples and singles live in different worlds: median net worth was $811,200 for married or partnered households 65 and older versus $233,200 for single ones (Q3 tabulation, SCF 2025).
- The first required minimum distribution at age 73 uses a Uniform Lifetime Table divisor of 26.5 (IRS Publication 590-B), so pre-tax balances inside net worth eventually become taxable income on a schedule.
Retiree Net Worth in 2025: The Four Numbers That Matter
Fed figures are from its October 2026 report. Q3 tabulations use the weighted 2025 public summary extract, all five implicates, in 2025 dollars. Retirement accounts follow the Fed’s RETQLIQ definition (IRAs, Keoghs, 401(k), 403(b) and other account-type plans); Social Security and defined benefit pension promises are not counted as assets.
What is the average net worth of retirees?
The average net worth of retirees is $1,897,600 for households headed by someone 65 to 74 and $1,962,200 for those 75 and older, according to the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). The median, the household in the exact middle, is $431,300 and $504,900.
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The SCF groups households by the age of the “reference person,” not by whether anyone has stopped working. It is the only federal survey that measures the full balance sheet (homes, businesses, brokerage accounts, retirement plans and every kind of debt), and the Fed runs it every three years.
| Age of household head | Mean 2025 | Median 2025 | Median 2022 (2025 dollars) | Median change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 to 64 | $1,878,000 | $411,900 | $398,900 | +3% |
| 65 to 74 | $1,897,600 | $431,300 | $448,600 | −4% |
| 75 and older | $1,962,200 | $504,900 | $367,300 | +37% |
| All families | $1,241,500 | $215,900 | $211,100 | +2% |
Source: Federal Reserve, Table 2, thousands of 2025 dollars converted to dollars.
The headline surprise is the oldest group. The Fed notes that families 75 and older now have the highest net worth of any age band, and attributes the jump primarily to a rise in the value of their retirement accounts rather than to a shift in who is in the group. Recently retired households, by contrast, saw their real median slip about 4%. The flip side, families without any accounts, is covered in what percentage of Americans have no retirement savings.
What is the average net worth at 65, 70, 75 and 80?
Average net worth runs from about $1.8 million to $2.1 million in every five-year band after 65, while the median sits between roughly $415,000 and $568,000. The Fed does not publish five-year bands, so the table below is a Q3 tabulation of the same public survey file.
| Age | Households | Mean | 25th pct. | Median | 75th pct. | 90th pct. | Median without home equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 65 to 69 | 11.7 million | $1,818,400 | $110,600 | $436,800 | $1,304,200 | $3,458,500 | $163,000 |
| 70 to 74 | 10.3 million | $1,930,200 | $118,500 | $424,400 | $1,320,000 | $3,807,000 | $118,900 |
| 75 to 79 | 9.5 million | $1,827,600 | $136,200 | $415,600 | $1,378,000 | $4,137,000 | $161,000 |
| 80 and older | 8.6 million | $2,084,500 | $199,500 | $567,600 | $1,533,100 | $4,188,300 | $213,200 |
| All 65 and older | 40.1 million | $1,906,500 | $137,500 | $448,500 | $1,383,200 | $3,912,200 | $160,400 |
Source: Q3 tabulation of the SCF 2025 summary extract, weighted (WGT), five implicates pooled, 2025 dollars.
Two patterns stand out. First, the bottom quarter gets richer with age: the 25th percentile climbs from $110,600 at 65 to 69 to $199,500 at 80 and older. Part of that is survivorship, since wealthier people tend to live longer, so the oldest band is a more selected group.
Second, the age bands are noisier than they look. The SCF stores five imputed versions of every answer, and the 75 to 79 median ranges from $405,700 to $492,900 across those versions; the 65 to 69 median ranges only from $428,900 to $444,300. Treat a gap of less than about $50,000 between two older bands as statistically soft.
Does it matter whether the household is actually retired?
Yes for the average, barely for the median: households 65 and older whose head is retired had a median of $457,900, close to the $443,100 for those still working, but the working group’s mean was $2,980,600 versus $1,530,600.
About 10.4 million of the 40.1 million households headed by someone 65 or older, roughly 26%, were still working for an employer or for themselves in 2025. That group includes business owners who never retire, which is why business equity drives its average. Retired heads are those the SCF codes as retired or disabled, plus other non-workers 65 and older.
| Households 65 and older | Households | Median | Mean | Median without home equity | Own a retirement account |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head retired or not working | 29.7 million | $457,900 | $1,530,600 | $146,100 | 44.8% |
| Head still working | 10.4 million | $443,100 | $2,980,600 | $209,000 | 53.1% |
| Married or living with a partner | 19.8 million | $811,200 | $2,944,300 | $370,800 | 59.5% |
| Single | 20.3 million | $233,200 | $896,400 | $49,900 | 34.8% |
Source: Q3 tabulation, SCF 2025. Work status uses the Fed’s OCCAT1 variable; marital status uses MARRIED.
The couple versus single split is the larger planning fact. A single household 65 or older has a median of under $50,000 once the home is excluded, and only about a third own an IRA or workplace plan. Most singles at this age are widowed, divorced or never married, and widowhood also moves the survivor onto the single tax brackets, a shift covered in detail in the widow’s penalty.
Why is the average net worth of retirees four times the median?
The mean is about 4.25 times the median for households 65 and older because the top 1% starts near $20.5 million, and those balances pull the arithmetic average far above what most households hold.
The average lands between the 75th and 90th percentiles, so roughly four in five older households have less than the “average retiree.” Quoting the mean as a benchmark makes most retirees look behind when they are not.
What sits at the top is also different in kind. In the top 10% of households 65 and older, business equity is about 24.5% of combined net worth and taxable financial assets (brokerage, bonds, cash and similar) another 37.3%, while home equity is only 10.0%. Wealth at the top is mostly investment and business capital, which carries capital gains and estate questions more than ordinary income questions; those are the subject of retirement planning for high net worth individuals.
What is the typical retiree’s net worth made of?
For the middle household 65 and older, mostly a house: home equity averages $272,600 of a $468,000 net worth (58%), retirement accounts $55,300 (12%) and other financial assets $83,000 (18%).
| Component | Middle households 65+ (40th to 60th percentile) | Top 10% of households 65+ | All wealth held by households 65+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home equity | 58.2% ($272,600) | 10.0% | 19.9% |
| Retirement accounts | 11.8% ($55,300) | 16.9% | 19.2% |
| Other financial assets | 17.7% ($83,000) | 37.3% | 32.3% |
| Business, other real estate, vehicles, less other debt | 12.2% ($57,200) | 35.8% | 28.6% |
Source: Q3 tabulation, SCF 2025. Middle households are those between $299,500 and $686,400 of net worth; dollar figures are their weighted averages.
That composition changes what “net worth” can actually fund. About 93% of middle households own their home, but only 47% hold any retirement account, so a large share of their wealth produces no cash flow unless they sell, downsize or borrow against the house. A sale has its own tax rule: up to $250,000 of gain ($500,000 for joint filers) can be excluded on a qualifying main home (IRS Publication 523).
For the 47% who do hold accounts, how the account is taxed matters more than its size. Whether a 401(k) belongs in net worth at full value is answered in does net worth include a 401(k); the short version is that a traditional balance is a pre-tax number.
How much of retiree net worth is pre-tax money?
About one dollar in five: retirement accounts made up 19.2% of all net worth held by households 65 and older in 2025, roughly $14.7 trillion, up from 15.2% and $10.6 trillion in 2022 (both in 2025 dollars).
The SCF records retirement balances without splitting traditional from Roth money. For today’s retirees, though, most account dollars came from deductible contributions and pre-tax rollovers; Roth IRAs only became available in 1998 and Roth 401(k) features in 2006, late in most of these savers’ careers. So the bulk of that $14.7 trillion will be taxed as ordinary income when it comes out, by the owner, a surviving spouse or an heir.
The concentration varies by household. Among households 65 and older that own an account, the median holds 24.8% of its net worth in retirement plans, and 9.0% of all households in this age group hold half or more of their net worth there. Those households have the largest embedded income tax relative to their balance sheet, and they are the ones for which required minimum distributions set the pace of taxable income after 73 (born 1951 to 1959) or 75 (born 1960 or later).
Households 65 and older also held 44.0% of all retirement account dollars in the country in 2025, up from 40.4% in 2022. As those balances pass to heirs, most non-spouse beneficiaries face the 10-year payout rule, which compresses the same taxable income into fewer years.
How did retiree net worth change from 2022 to 2025?
Real median net worth for all households 65 and older rose about 5.4% between the surveys, but the five-year bands moved in opposite directions, from a 10.5% decline at 70 to 74 to a 60.6% gain at 80 and older.
| Age | Median 2022 (2025 dollars) | Median 2025 | Change | Range of 2025 median across implicates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 65 to 69 | $431,500 | $436,800 | +1.2% | $428,900 to $444,300 |
| 70 to 74 | $474,000 | $424,400 | −10.5% | $412,700 to $432,400 |
| 75 to 79 | $373,500 | $415,600 | +11.3% | $405,700 to $492,900 |
| 80 and older | $353,500 | $567,600 | +60.6% | $551,600 to $577,000 |
| All 65 and older | $425,600 | $448,500 | +5.4% | $435,400 to $471,500 |
Source: Q3 tabulation of the SCF 2022 and 2025 summary extracts, both distributed by the Fed in 2025 dollars.
The 80 and older jump is the most robust change in the table: even the lowest 2025 implicate ($551,600) sits far above the 2022 median. It lines up with the shift in what older households own. Retirement accounts rose from 9.6% of the 80 and older group’s combined net worth in 2022 to 16.4% in 2025, consistent with the Fed’s own explanation that rising retirement account values drove the gain.
The 70 to 74 decline is less certain, because the 2022 median for that band ranged from $454,600 to $498,300 across implicates, but its direction matches the Fed’s published 4% drop for 65 to 74. A practical reading: markets lifted households with large invested balances, while households whose wealth is mostly a house saw smaller real gains.
What does a typical balance sheet mean for 2026 taxes?
It means the tax bill on the same savings can roughly double when a couple becomes a single filer, because the survivor’s 12% bracket ends at $50,400 of taxable income instead of $100,800 (IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32).
Consider a hypothetical couple, both 73, near the 75th percentile for married households 65 and older (about $2.8 million). In line with the median account holder, about a quarter of that, $750,000, sits in traditional IRAs. Their first RMD is $750,000 divided by 26.5, or $28,302. They also receive $60,000 of Social Security and $12,000 of interest.
| 2026 federal figures (hypothetical) | Couple, married filing jointly | Surviving spouse, single |
|---|---|---|
| Social Security received | $60,000 | $36,000 (larger benefit kept) |
| Taxable part of Social Security | $28,357 | $25,157 |
| Adjusted gross income | $68,658 | $65,458 |
| Deductions (standard, age 65 add-on, senior deduction) | $47,500 | $24,150 |
| Taxable income | $21,158 | $41,308 |
| Federal income tax | $2,116 | $4,709 |
| Room left below the top of the 12% bracket | $79,642 | $9,092 |
Figures computed from the 2026 brackets and standard deductions ($32,200 joint, $16,100 single, plus $1,650 or $2,050 per person 65 or older) in Rev. Proc. 2025-32, the temporary $6,000 per-person senior deduction for 2025 through 2028, and the benefit inclusion rules in IRS Publication 915. Federal only; interest treated as ordinary income.
The survivor reports less income yet owes more than twice the tax. Each added IRA dollar also costs more: because extra income pulls more Social Security into the taxable column, the couple’s effective marginal rate on the next $1,000 is about 18.5%, and the survivor’s about 22.2%. The 12% bracket room that the couple can leave unused shrinks from $79,642 to $9,092.
That gap is why couples with a meaningful pre-tax share of net worth often model partial Roth conversions while both spouses are alive and the joint brackets apply, especially in low-income years before RMDs begin. Whether that fits depends on Medicare premium tiers, state tax, heirs’ brackets and how long the senior deduction lasts, which a financial professional can model for a specific household.
What does net worth leave out for retirees?
It leaves out the two largest income sources for many retirees: the Fed’s net worth measure does not count Social Security or defined benefit pension promises as assets, because their value depends on assumptions about mortality, inflation and discount rates (Federal Reserve, Appendix A).
A retired teacher with a $400,000 net worth and a state pension may be more secure than a neighbor with $900,000 and no pension. Net worth also ignores taxes owed on pre-tax accounts and unrealized capital gains, which is why an after-tax view of the balance sheet, rather than the statement total, is the more useful planning number.
Benchmarks built on thresholds answer a different question again. For the share of older households that crossed $1 million in retirement accounts or total net worth, see what percentage of people retire with $1 million; for account balances alone by age, see retirement account balances by age.
Frequently Asked Questions
What percentage of retirees have over $1,000,000?
Roughly 32.2% of U.S. households whose head is 65 or older reached seven figures of total net worth in 2025, per a Q3 tabulation of the Fed’s public survey file. Excluding home equity, the share falls to 23.0%. Far fewer reach $1 million in retirement accounts alone.
What net worth is considered upper class at retirement?
There is no official cutoff. Among households 65 and older in 2025, a net worth of about $1.38 million marked the top quarter, about $3.91 million the top 10%, and about $20.5 million the top 1%, based on a Q3 tabulation of the Federal Reserve’s 2025 survey data.
Is a $3 million net worth considered wealthy for a retiree?
By the numbers it is well above typical. About 13.7% of households headed by someone 65 or older had $3 million or more of net worth in 2025, roughly the top seventh of that age group, according to a Q3 tabulation of the Fed’s 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances.
What is the average net worth of a 65-year-old couple?
For married or partnered households headed by someone 65 to 69, mean net worth was about $2,767,900 and the median about $879,400 in 2025, based on a Q3 tabulation of the Fed’s survey data. The sample for a single age band is small, so these figures carry wider error than the all-ages numbers.
What is the average net worth of a 75-year-old?
For households headed by someone 75 to 79, mean net worth was about $1,827,600 and the median about $415,600 in 2025 (Q3 tabulation of SCF 2025). The Fed’s published figures for everyone 75 and older are a $1,962,200 mean and a $504,900 median.
Is median or average net worth better for comparing retirees?
The median is the better comparison for most households. For households 65 and older the 2025 mean of about $1.9 million is roughly 4.25 times the $448,500 median, because a small number of very wealthy households raise the average; about four in five older households fall below it.
Does a retiree’s net worth include Social Security and pensions?
No. The Federal Reserve’s net worth measure includes account balances such as IRAs and 401(k)s but excludes Social Security and defined benefit pension promises, because their value depends on assumptions about future events. Two households with the same net worth can have very different retirement incomes.
Methodology: Published age-group figures come from Table 2 of the Federal Reserve’s October 2026 report on the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances. All other figures are Q3 tabulations of the Fed’s 2025 and 2022 public summary extracts (SCFP2025), weighted by WGT with all five implicates pooled, in 2025 dollars as distributed by the Fed. Net worth is NETWORTH; home equity is HOMEEQ (home value minus mortgages and home equity lines); retirement accounts are RETQLIQ; other financial assets are FIN minus RETQLIQ. Age bands use the age of the reference person; work status uses OCCAT1 and marital status MARRIED, per the SCF variable definitions. The tabulation reproduces the Fed’s published medians within 0.2%; means from the public file run about 1% to 1.5% below published means because of disclosure edits to the public data, so published Fed values are used wherever the Fed reports the same cut. Five-year bands rest on roughly 250 to 420 sample households each and should be read with the implicate ranges shown. The tax example is hypothetical, federal only and uses 2026 law. As a YMYL financial page, it relies only on the Fed and IRS primary sources cited; anonymous forum posts and unsourced statistics from other sites were not used.
This article is for educational purposes only and is not individualized investment, tax, or legal advice. Consult a qualified professional about your specific situation.
