Net Worth Percentile at 45 to 49

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

$213,586

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

Average

$781,840

3.7x the median. This is the number most articles quote.

Median net worth at 45 to 49 is $213,586, the first bracket where the middle of the distribution clears two hundred thousand dollars.

The average is $781,840, and the top ten percent starts at $1,428,714.

The full spread at 45 to 49

Percentile	Net worth	What it means
25th	$47,668	Bottom 25 percent are below
50th	$213,586	Median, half are below
75th	$680,298	Top 25 percent start here
90th	$1,428,714	Top 10 percent start here
95th	$2,790,132	Top 5 percent start here
99th	$8,701,500	Top 1 percent start here

Excluding home equity, the median for 45 to 49 drops to $92,370. 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 bracket where retirement stops being abstract

This is the first age band where the median is large enough to matter to a retirement calculation rather than just to a savings goal. At $213,586, invested and left alone at 7 percent real for twenty years to 65, the median household reaches roughly $827,000 without contributing another dollar. That is not enough for most people's spending, but it is no longer a rounding error against the target.

It is also the bracket where the gap between the median and the 75th percentile is at its most brutal in absolute terms. The 75th percentile is $680,298, more than three times the median. Half the country is below $213,586 and a quarter is above $680,298, with very little in between in proportional terms. There is no comfortable middle in the mid forties.

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

Is $200,000 at 47 on track for retirement?

It puts you at roughly the median for your age, and whether it is on track depends entirely on your spending. At 7 percent real for eighteen years it becomes around $676,000 by 65 with no further contributions, which supports about $27,000 a year at a 4 percent withdrawal rate. Add Social Security and that is a modest but real retirement. Whether it is enough is your number to run, not the country's.

Does a pension count toward net worth?

Defined benefit pensions generally do not appear in these figures, which understates the position of anyone who has one. If you have a pension, your true retirement security is materially better than your net worth percentile suggests, and public sector workers in particular should read these numbers with that in mind.

What you needCoast FIRE at 45Percentiles 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.