WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Reserve Board released the results of the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances on October 9, 2026. The triennial survey, which has been sponsored by the Federal Reserve since 1989 and is conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, showed that real median family income rose 7 percent between the 2022 and 2025 surveys, from $76,900 in 2021 to $82,200 in 2024. Primary source: federalreserve.gov

Real mean family income fell 6 percent over the same period, dropping from $155,300 in 2021 to $145,200 in 2024. Real median net worth rose 2 percent between 2022 and 2025 to $215,900, while real mean net worth rose 7 percent to $1.24 million. Primary source: federalreserve.gov

Families aged 75 or older experienced a 24 percent increase in median income and a 6 percent increase in mean income between 2022 and 2025. In contrast, mean income for families aged 35 to 44 declined 25 percent during that timeframe. Black non-Hispanic families saw a 2 percent decline in median income and a 5 percent decline in mean income, while Asian families experienced a 3 percent decline in median income with no change in mean income. Hispanic or Latino families recorded a 31 percent increase in median income and a 21 percent increase in mean income.

The homeownership rate was 66 percent in 2025, 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. Total debt secured by a primary residence increased between 2022 and 2025, with the median amount rising from $170,200 to $183,600 among families with such debt. Primary source: federalreserve.gov

Retirement plan participation was approximately 65 percent in 2025, a slight increase from 2022. Stock market participation declined from 58 percent in 2022 to 56 percent in 2025, though conditional on holding stock, median stock holdings grew 36 percent from $56,900 in 2022 to $77,400 in 2025. More than 15 percent of all families owned a privately held business in 2025, a slight increase from 2022. Primary source: federalreserve.gov

The share of families with any type of debt remained stable at 77 percent between 2022 and 2025. Median credit card debt increased by $150 to $3,100, and mean credit card debt increased by $1,300 to $8,000. The share of families with student debt was 20 percent in 2025, down 2 percentage points from 2022, while the median balance among those with such debt declined 5 percent to $25,600 and the mean balance declined 16 percent to $43,000. Primary source: federalreserve.gov

The median debt payment-to-income ratio was 15.4 percent in 2025, up 2.0 percentage points from 2022, and the total debt-to-income ratio increased from 89.4 percent to 94.9 percent. The share of families with debt payment-to-income ratios greater than 40 percent increased from 6.5 percent in 2022 to 8.6 percent in 2025, a level last seen in the 2013 survey. The share of families reporting being behind on loan payments increased from about 12 percent in 2022 to almost 20 percent in 2025, and more than 8 percent of families reported being two months late or more on payments in 2025, up from 5 percent in 2022. The share of families that did not have a good idea of their income for the next year reached 37 percent in 2025. Primary source: federalreserve.gov