Quick answer
69th percentile · Top 31% of US households
A $500,000 household net worth ranks ahead of roughly 91.0 million US households and behind about 40.3 million. Your rank for your own age is often very different — see the table below.
A net worth of $500,000 places a US household at roughly the 69th percentile nationally — top 31% of all American households, ahead of about 91.0 million households and behind roughly 40.3 million. For reference, the median US household net worth is $192,900 and the top 10% begins at $1,940,000.
Age changes the answer sharply. $500,000 is a top-10% net worth as late as the 25–29 band, yet it sits below the median for the oldest band. This is the single most common source of confusion about net worth percentiles — a static number slides down the rankings every year unless it grows at least as fast as your cohort's.
This range is also where the gap between total and liquid net worth tends to be widest. A household reaching $500,000 primarily through home appreciation and a paid-down mortgage has a very different set of options than one that reached it through retirement and taxable accounts. Before treating this number as a milestone, separate what you could actually access from what's locked in property — the net worth calculator below splits the two.
The same $500,000 ranks completely differently depending on how old you are. Each row shows where this net worth would place a household in that age band, and how it compares to that band's median.
| Age band | Percentile | Rank | Median for age | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18–24 | 97th | Top 3% | $10,222 | +$489,778 |
| 25–29 | 95th | Top 5% | $31,470 | +$468,530 |
| 30–34 | 89th | Top 11% | $88,631 | +$411,369 |
| 35–39 | 80th | Top 20% | $138,588 | +$361,412 |
| 40–44 | 77th | Top 23% | $134,382 | +$365,618 |
| 45–49 | 68th | Top 32% | $213,586 | +$286,414 |
| 50–54 | 63rd | Top 37% | $266,140 | +$233,860 |
| 55–59 | 59th | Top 41% | $321,074 | +$178,926 |
| 60–64 | 56th | Top 44% | $392,860 | +$107,140 |
| 65–69 | 56th | Top 44% | $393,480 | +$106,520 |
| 70–74 | 53rd | Top 47% | $438,700 | +$61,300 |
| 75–79 | 59th | Top 41% | $338,180 | +$161,820 |
| 80+ | 60th | Top 40% | $327,200 | +$172,800 |
These figures are for exactly $500,000. Enter your actual net worth and age to get your precise percentile, the gap to your age group's median, and the dollars needed to reach the next rung.
A $500,000 net worth is at about the 69th percentile of US households, meaning roughly 69% of American households have less. Whether that is "good" depends heavily on age: it ranks near the top for younger households and considerably lower for households in their fifties and sixties, because peer net worth rises steeply with age.
Approximately the 69th percentile across all US households, per the Federal Reserve's 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances. By age band it ranges from the 97th percentile for households aged 18–24 to the 60th percentile for those aged 80+.
About 40.3 million of roughly 131 million US households have a net worth above $500,000, while around 91.0 million have less.
Yes. The Survey of Consumer Finances counts net worth as all assets minus all liabilities, including the primary residence net of its mortgage and retirement account balances at face value. Compare like with like when checking your own figure.
Data & method
Percentiles are estimated from the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, 2022 wave (released October 2023), the most recent published wave, by interpolating in log space between the published 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th, 95th and 99th percentile breakpoints for each age band. Figures are nominal 2022 survey dollars and are not inflation-adjusted. Median US household net worth in that survey was $192,900 with a mean of $1,063,700. The SCF excludes the Forbes 400 and has limited sample size above the 95th percentile, so upper-percentile estimates should be treated as approximate floors. The 2025 wave is expected in late 2026. This page is informational and is not financial advice.
