Fed survey finds higher median income and wealth, but heavier debt burdens for some
Real median family income rose 7% from 2022 to $82,200, while the share of families with debt payments above 40% of income climbed to 8.6%.
Income gains were broad but uneven
The typical U.S. family reported higher inflation-adjusted income and net worth in 2025 than three years earlier, according to the Federal Reserve’s new Survey of Consumer Finances. Real median family income rose 7 percent from the 2022 survey to $82,200, while real mean income fell 6 percent to $145,200.
The difference between median and mean matters. The median identifies the family at the middle of the distribution, while the mean is pulled more strongly by households with very high incomes. The Fed said families in the lower portions of the income and wealth distributions recorded modest gains in median and mean income, while families near the top experienced declines.
The survey is conducted every three years and asks a representative sample about income, assets, borrowing and banking. The Fed said participants were randomly selected from 119 metropolitan and rural areas, and the fieldwork was conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago.
Wealth rose, with housing still central
Real median net worth increased 2 percent to $215,900 between the 2022 and 2025 surveys. Real mean net worth rose 7 percent to $1.24 million. The distance between those two figures illustrates how wealth is distributed: an average can be much higher than the position of the middle family.
Homeownership was 66 percent in 2025, approximately unchanged from 2022. Among homeowners, median net housing value—the estimated value of a home minus mortgage and other home-secured debt—rose to $230,000 from $218,900 after adjusting for inflation.
Retirement-plan participation edged up to about 65 percent. The measure includes individual retirement accounts, account-type workplace plans and defined-benefit pensions. Among families with account-type retirement plans, both median and mean balances increased.
Stock-market participation, including stocks held indirectly through funds and retirement accounts, slipped to 56 percent from 58 percent. Among families that owned stock, median holdings increased 36 percent to $77,400 from $56,900.
Debt was stable overall, but strain increased
About 77 percent of families had some form of debt, essentially unchanged from 2022, and median and mean outstanding debt were also little changed. That broad stability, however, coexisted with a rise in the number of families carrying high monthly payment obligations.
The share of families whose debt payments exceeded 40 percent of income increased from 6.5 percent to 8.6 percent, returning to a level last recorded in the 2013 survey. A high payment-to-income ratio can leave a household with less room to absorb an income loss or an unexpected expense, although the measure does not by itself show whether a family is delinquent.
The results describe national distributions rather than any single household. They also capture conditions at a survey point in time; asset prices, interest rates and incomes may have changed since a respondent was interviewed. Comparisons are reported in real terms where specified so that the 2022 and 2025 dollar amounts reflect inflation adjustments.
For policymakers, the survey offers a rare combined view of families’ balance sheets and incomes. For readers, its strongest lesson is that aggregate improvement and financial vulnerability can move together: the middle family gained income and wealth, yet a larger share of families faced especially heavy debt payments.