In the United States, understanding your place on the net worth scale, ranging from a few thousand dollars for the lower-class families to over $7 million for the upper class, can provide insightful financial assessments. Notably, regardless of one's position, there are opportunities to augment personal net worth and financial health.
Net worth can be an effective parameter for defining the diverse financial classes in the country. Although there's no definitive formal categorization of the lower, middle, and upper classes based on net worth, percentiles can be used for approximate estimation.
According to the 2022 data from the Federal Reserve, families in the bottom 25% of net worth have a median net worth of $3,500, with a mean net worth sitting at -$5,300. Bear in mind that net worth and income don't always go hand in hand; some low-net-worth individuals might have low income while others might have high incomes but also substantial debts.
Moving on to the middle class - those within the 25th to 90th percentiles of net worth - we see median net worths range from $93,300 to $1,036,200, and the mean net worths range from $98,800 to $1,102,400. This broad spectrum can be further split into the lower middle, middle, and upper middle classes, each with distinct worth ranges.
Families with net worths in the uppermost 10% have a median net worth of $3,794,600 and a mean net worth of $7,810,500. The mean overshadows the median primarily due to extremely high-net-worth individuals boosting the average.
Using net worth as a measuring tool for financial classes can give a clear picture of the economic landscape. While your net worth doesn't define your value as an individual, it serves as a valuable compass in navigating financial growth and debt reduction.