Plotbook

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Where does that net worth actually rank?

Enter a household net worth and see its percentile among US households, how it compares to the median for that age, and where the conventional wealth thresholds sit. Federal Reserve survey data, no signup, nothing sent anywhere.

Everything owned minus everything owed, including home equity and retirement accounts. You can type 750k or 1.2m.

Optional. Adds a comparison against the median for that age band.

This runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to us or to anyone else.

Enter a household net worth. You will get its percentile among US households, how it compares to the median for that age, and where the conventional wealth thresholds sit.

Why this one is different

Real survey data, cited

Percentiles come from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, 2022 wave, which is the government's own triennial study of household balance sheets. The tool names its source and its wave rather than presenting a number from nowhere.

It does not estimate anybody

You supply the figure. The tool ranks it. It does not look anyone up, guess at a household's wealth, or build a profile, and it holds no data about any real person.

The thresholds are labelled as conventions

High net worth and ultra high net worth are marketing bands, not legal categories, and they are not the accredited investor test. Most calculators blur the three. This one keeps them apart.

Nothing leaves your browser

The whole calculation is arithmetic against a table that ships with the page. There is no account, no run limit, and no request to a server carrying your number.

How to use it

  1. 01

    Add up assets, subtract debts

    Everything owned, including home equity and retirement accounts, minus everything owed. That is the definition the survey uses, so matching it is what makes the comparison valid.

  2. 02

    Enter the figure

    Type it however you like. 750000, 750k, and 1.2m all work. Optionally pick an age band for the median comparison.

  3. 03

    Read the percentile, then the caveats

    The percentile is a national ranking against a triennial survey. The notes under the result say what it does and does not account for, which matters more than the number.

Why the average net worth number is so misleading

The mean US household net worth is a little over one million dollars. The median is about $192,084. Both are correct, and the gap between them is the single most important fact about American wealth.

A mean is pulled by extremes, and net worth has no upper bound while it does have a practical floor. A handful of households with balance sheets in the billions lift the average for everyone, which is why the mean sits above the eightieth percentile of the actual distribution. Any article that reports "the average American has" a net worth over a million dollars is describing an arithmetic artefact rather than a household anybody would recognise. Read the median, and read the percentile.

Wealth is concentrated in property, which is why it is visible

For most households below the top few percent, home equity is the largest asset on the balance sheet, ahead of retirement accounts and far ahead of directly held stock. Wealth in the United States is substantially wealth in real property.

That is also why property records are the most useful public signal about household wealth: unlike brokerage accounts, real property is recorded, assessed, and public by county. It is not a complete picture, and treating an assessed value as a net worth would be a serious error, since it says nothing about the mortgage against it or the assets elsewhere. But it is the one component of a household balance sheet that leaves a public trail, which is why it is where wealth research starts.

What this calculator does not do

  • It does not look anyone up or estimate anybody's wealth. It ranks a figure you supply.
  • It uses the 2022 survey wave, so the distribution lags the present by several years.
  • It gives a national percentile, not a percentile for your state, metro, or profession, all of which vary widely.
  • It does not hold the distribution within an age band, so it compares against that band's median only.
  • Values between published percentile breakpoints are interpolated, so the figure is precise to about a percentile, not better.
  • Household definitions in the survey may not match how you think about your own household.
  • It is not financial advice and produces no recommendation of any kind.

Questions

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