Median Net Worth Fell 23% for U.S. Families With Reference Persons Under 35

Inflation-adjusted median net worth fell 23% from 2022 to 2025 among U.S. families whose reference person was younger than 35. For families whose reference person was 75 or older, it rose 37%, showing sharply different outcomes across age groups.

The youngest group’s median dropped from $42,700 to $33,000. Its mean net worth also fell 33%, to $135,400. For the oldest group, the median climbed from $367,300 to $504,900. Across all U.S. families, the median increased 2%, from $211,100 to $215,900. All figures are in 2025 dollars.

The decline among families under 35 was primarily driven by a reversal of business-equity gains accumulated between 2019 and 2022. For families 75 or older, higher retirement-account values were the main driver of the increase.

Despite the decline since 2022, the under-35 median remained above its roughly $18,000 level in 2019. It had reached nearly $43,000 in 2022.

The 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances compares separate groups of families across survey waves; it does not track the same households over time. Its age brackets also do not map directly to generations: the under-35 group includes younger millennials and Gen Z, while the 75-and-older group does not represent boomers alone.