The Wealth Gap in America Just Widened Even More

Wealth in the US has rarely been this lopsided. New Federal Reserve data show that the richest 1% of households now possess 31.7% of all American wealth, the largest share since the Fed began tracking the numbers in 1989. Their holdings, roughly $55 trillion as of 2025's third quarter, are about equal to what the bottom 90% of Americans own all together, per CBS News. "Household wealth is highly concentrated and becoming steadily more concentrated," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. The figures arrive alongside an Oxfam report that found global billionaire fortunes rose in 2025 at triple their average annual pace of the previous five years.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk tops Bloomberg's wealth rankings, with an estimated $667 billion. The pandemic era appears to have deepened long-running divides, Zandi says. His analysis of Fed data found that in the second quarter of 2025, the top 10% of earners were responsible for almost half of all consumer spending. A major factor in the widening gap: a roaring stock market, buoyed in part by enthusiasm over artificial intelligence, which disproportionately benefits higher-income households more heavily invested in said stocks. Gallup data show 87% of stock owners live in households earning at least $100,000 a year.

For everyone else, assets and paychecks aren't keeping pace. Middle-income families primarily build wealth through homeownership, but price gains in housing have cooled. Lower-income Americans, meanwhile, are contending with heavier debt. Wage growth is also tilted toward the top: Bank of America data shows that pay for higher-income households rose about 3% in December, versus 1.5% for middle-income and 1.1% for low-income workers, further widening what's come to be called the "K-shaped economy."