Wealth Share

Wealth share is the percentage of total household wealth held by a defined slice of the population — most commonly the top 1%, the top 10%, or the bottom 50%. Wealth and income are not the same thing: income is what households earn in a year, wealth is what they hold (stocks, bonds, real estate, business equity, retirement accounts, minus debts).

Wealth is more concentrated than income because it compounds. A household earning a moderate income can accumulate wealth slowly through saving and asset appreciation; a household earning a high income with appreciating assets compounds faster. Across decades the gap widens.

The US top 1% holds roughly 30% of household wealth; the bottom 50% holds roughly 3%. These numbers are themselves contested — different sources (Federal Reserve DFA, World Inequality Database, Saez–Zucman reconstruction) produce somewhat different estimates depending on whether they include defined-benefit pensions, durable goods, and unrealized capital gains. Thin Gold’s Wealth Concentration Tracker uses the Fed DFA series for the modern era and Saez–Zucman for historical comparisons.