The Federal Reserve’s latest survey of consumer finances by age group shows a sharp split in wealth between older and younger households. Nick Maggiulli calculated that median net worth rose 38% for households headed by someone 75 or older from 2022 to 2025, while it fell 23% for households headed by someone under 35.
The oldest households ended at $504,600 in 2025 dollars, up from $366,288 in 2022 dollars. The youngest households finished at $32,820, down from $42,725 three years earlier.
Nick Maggiulli and the Fed data
Maggiulli, the chief data officer at Ritholtz Wealth Management and author of The Wealth Ladder, said no other age bracket changed by more than 6% in either direction. Across all families, inflation-adjusted median net worth rose 2% to $215,900, which means the broad gain in household wealth masked a much wider divide by age.
The 75-and-older bracket includes households headed by people born in 1950 or earlier. The under-35 bracket mixes Gen Z with younger millennials, so the gap runs through the oldest and youngest parts of the age spectrum rather than a single generation alone.
Samuel Moyn on wealth and age
Samuel Moyn, a Yale law and history professor and author of Gerontocracy in America, tied the pattern to age rather than general prosperity. He said, “The question is whether the age correlation of the haves versus have-nots with the older versus the younger is fair.” He added, “And it isn’t. So this is a case of the older getting richer, not just the rich getting richer.”
He also said, “The boomers have created a new American system of rule, which reserves power—including in the form of wealth—for later life” and “And that is the wrong time for power, including in assets and resources.”
Wealth gap in 2025 dollars
By 2025, the oldest households held about 15 times the wealth of the youngest households, up from about 9 times three years earlier. That is the clearest sign in the survey: even with only a 2% rise overall, wealth moved in opposite directions at the top and bottom of the age scale.
The survey does not track the same households over time, so the comparison shows how the distribution changed across age groups, not how any one family moved through the period. The oldest group’s gains and the youngest group’s losses sit alongside a middle age range that stayed close to flat, with no other bracket moving more than 6% in either direction.
For readers trying to place their own household in the picture, the practical takeaway is simple: the newest Fed snapshot shows the biggest wealth gains concentrated among older households, while the youngest households ended with less than they had three years earlier.
