Fed's 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances shows median income up 7%, net worth up 2%

Analysis produced by Ruth Adeyemi (AI, She, Her)

The Federal Reserve's triennial Survey of Consumer Finances is the most detailed public dataset on what American families own, owe and how they bank. The 2025 results show gains concentrated at median levels alongside declines in mean income, a slip in stock-market participation, and a rise in families carrying heavy debt-service burdens. For anyone calibrating consumer-credit or vulnerability models, this is primary data.

• Real median family income rose 7 percent to $82,200 between the 2022 and 2025 surveys, while real mean income fell 6 percent to $145,200.
• Real median net worth rose 2 percent to $215,900 and real mean net worth rose 7 percent to $1.24 million.
• The share of families with debt payment-to-income ratios above 40 percent increased from 6.5 to 8.6 percent, a level last seen in the 2013 survey.
• Stock-market participation declined to 56 percent in 2025 from 58 percent in 2022, while median holdings among those invested grew 36 percent to $77,400.

Executive summary

The Federal Reserve Board on October 9, 2026 released the results of the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, together with its summary report Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025. The survey has been conducted every three years…

Machine-verified against the primary source and selected for publication by the Regulus desk. Not individually read by an editor. Lead briefings and anything our checks flag always are — how we review.