The Federal Reserve Board has released the results of the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, a comprehensive report providing a representative picture of what Americans own, how they borrow, and how they bank. The survey is conducted every three years and provides a time series of data on the economic conditions of American families.
The Board released a summary report titled "Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025." Key findings from the 2025 survey include:
- Income: Real median family income rose 7 percent between 2022 and 2025 to $82,200. However, real mean family income fell 6 percent to $145,200. Families in the lower ends of the income and net worth distributions saw modest increases in median and mean income, while families in the upper ends saw declines.
- Net Worth: Real median net worth rose by 2 percent to $215,900, while real mean net worth rose by 7 percent to $1.24 million. Most families across the net worth and income distributions experienced increases in median and mean wealth.
- Homeownership: The homeownership rate was 66 percent in 2025, about unchanged from 2022. For families that owned a home, the median net housing value rose to $230,000 in 2025 from $218,900 in 2022.
- Retirement: Retirement plan participation, which includes account-type plans, individual retirement accounts, or defined benefit plans, was up slightly between 2022 and 2025 at around 65 percent. For families with account-type plans, mean and median balances rose.
- Stock Market: Participation in the stock market, which includes direct stock and indirect holdings, declined slightly from 58 percent in 2022 to 56 percent in 2025. Conditional on holding stock, median stock holdings grew 36 percent from $56,900 in 2022 to $77,400 in 2025.
- Debt: The fraction of families with any type of debt remained about stable at 77 percent. Median and mean debt outstanding remained unchanged from 2022.
- Debt Burden: The fraction of families with debt payment-to-income ratios greater than 40 percent increased from 6.5 to 8.6 percent, a level last seen in the 2013 survey.
The survey was conducted for the Board by NORC, a social science research organization at the University of Chicago. Participants were chosen at random from 119 geographic areas, including metropolitan areas and rural counties across the United States.
