The number of Americans with extreme wealth is soaring—and with it, their share of the nation's assets and influence grows.
"The ultrawealthy have grown really substantially," Owen Zidar, a Princeton economics professor who studies wealth, told The Wall Street Journal.
Zidar's analysis of Federal Reserve data found that about 430,000 U.S. households are now worth at least $30 million, and some 74,000 are worth $100 million or more. Some built fortunes in technology, finance or commercial real estate, while others own thriving small businesses. And although many of these households are concentrated in coastal cities, a significant share reside far from the country's most expensive markets.
Research by Zidar, Matt Smith of the Treasury Department, and Eric Zwick of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business shows how sharply this wealth has concentrated. The top 0.1% now hold 15.7% of all U.S. wealth, up from 7.1% in the late 1970s, their study found. The top 1% collectively hold 33.7%.
Economists Emmanuel Saez of the University of California, Berkeley and Gabriel Zucman of the Paris School of Economics estimate that the wealth of the top 0.1% of households—those with a net worth of at least $43 million—has grown more than 13 times over the past 50 years. For these households, 72% of their net worth comes from corporate equities, mutual funds and private businesses.
By generation, baby boomers hold the greatest share of this wealth—$88.5 trillion—followed by Generation X ($45.4 trillion), the silent generation and older ($20.8 trillion) and millennials and Gen Z combined ($18.25 trillion).
The concentration of money at the top has spawned a growing luxury ecosystem catering to the ultrarich, from financial services to high-end housing. The Journal reported in January 2026 that home sales of $10 million or more surged almost 32% in 2025 in the nation's 10 priciest luxury markets, exceeding 1,600 transactions. Manhattan led with 398 such sales, followed by greater Los Angeles (292), Palm Beach County (193), Miami-Dade County (173), and Orange County (121).
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