Net Worth Percentile at 25 to 29

U.S. households, grouped by age of the reference person. Deco computes these five-year age groups from the Fed's public 2022 microdata, applying survey weights within each of five imputations and averaging the estimates. Values are nominal 2022 USD, with no inflation update. Net worth includes home equity. These are U.S. benchmarks, not local wealth percentiles for other countries.

Median

$31,470

Half of U.S. households in this reference-person age group have less than this.

Average

$120,182

3.8x the median. This is the number most articles quote.

The median net worth for 25 to 29 year olds is $31,470. Half of this age group has less than that, which is worth sitting with for a second, because the average quoted in most articles is $120,182.

That gap of nearly four times is not a rounding error. It is what happens when you average a group that contains both people with student debt and people who already have two million dollars.

The full spread at 25 to 29

Percentile	Net worth	What it means
25th	$3,784	Bottom 25 percent are below
50th	$31,470	Median, half are below
75th	$130,606	Top 25 percent start here
90th	$296,830	Top 10 percent start here
95th	$410,060	Top 5 percent start here
99th	$2,121,910	Top 1 percent start here

Excluding home equity, the median for 25 to 29 drops to $19,270. This distribution still includes owners and renters, and other assets may be illiquid. It is not a renter-only benchmark or a measure of available cash.

The spread is already enormous at 25

The top one percent of this age group holds $2,121,910. The bottom quarter holds $3,784 or less. That is a range of roughly five hundred to one inside a five year age band, and it is wider than most people assume for a group this young.

Practically, it means comparing yourself to the average at this age tells you almost nothing. The average sits somewhere around the 75th percentile of the actual distribution, so a person of entirely typical finances reads it and concludes they are far behind. They are not. They are at the median, which is exactly where half of everyone is.

Find your own number

A percentile is only useful once you know where you actually stand, and the trend matters far more than the snapshot.

Open the net worth calculator

Common questions

Does student debt count?

Yes, and it is a large part of why the lower percentiles are so low. Net worth is everything owned minus everything owed, so a graduate with $40,000 of loans and $5,000 saved has a net worth of minus $35,000. A meaningful share of this age group is negative, which the percentile figures reflect.

Is it bad to have a negative net worth at 27?

It is common, and on its own it says little. What matters far more at this age is the direction and the rate. Someone at minus $20,000 who is clearing $1,500 a month of debt is in a stronger position than someone at plus $10,000 who is static.

What you needCoast FIRE at 25Percentiles tell you where you rank against other people. This tells you the amount that, left completely alone, still gets you to retirement on time.

Other age brackets

Source: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances 2022. U.S. households, grouped by age of the reference person. Deco computes these five-year age groups from the Fed's public 2022 microdata, applying survey weights within each of five imputations and averaging the estimates. Values are nominal 2022 USD, with no inflation update. Net worth includes home equity. These are U.S. benchmarks, not local wealth percentiles for other countries. General information, not financial advice.