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Visualized: How Does the Wealth of Millennials Compare to Previous Generations?
July 26, 2024
Much has been made of millennials’ finances. The cohort started their working careers during the Great Recession, and high housing costs and the burden of student loans have helped contribute to the impression that they are a “broke generation.”
However, data shows that the wealth of Americans under the age of 40 has risen to historic highs in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that millennials have accumulated more wealth by their 40s than previous generations.
To illustrate this trend, our friends at Visual Capitalist have compiled an infographic that tracks the household wealth, adjusted for inflation, of Americans under 40 from the end of 1989 to the end of 2023, based on data from the Federal Reserve.
The data suggest that younger Americans have benefitted the most from the strong economic recovery since the pandemic. Looking specifically at millennials, inflation-adjusted household wealth has more than doubled since the pandemic. The increase in millennial wealth is not concentrated in a single area. Average housing wealth saw the biggest jump, climbing $22,000 between 2109 and 2023, but younger Americans have also seen gains in short-term liquid assets like bank deposits and money market funds, as well as financial assets like stocks and mutual funds.
For a full overview of how the wealth of today’s under-40 Americans compares to that of previous generations, please see the infographic below:
