MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) -
The U.S. median household net worth dropped 35 percent from $102,844 to $66,740 between 2005 and 2010, according to data released Monday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
But if you take out home equity, median household net worth increased by 8 percent between 2009 and 2010, from $13,859 to $15,000.
Household net worth is the total value of your assets minus any debts.
"The overall decline in net worth reflects drops in housing values and stock market indices," said Census Bureau economist Alfred Gottschalck.
Median net worth decreased for all age groups over the period, but the drop was greater for older households than for younger ones. For householders 65 and older, it decreased from $195,890 to $170,128; for those under 35, the decrease was from $8,528 to $5,402.
But if you look at it in percentages, it's a different story: a 37 percent decline for younger householders, compared with a 13 percent drop for older ones.
Other net worth highlights
- More education is associated with higher net worth. In 2010, those with a graduate or professional degree had a median net worth of $245,763, while the median net worth of those with a high school diploma only was $42,223. Those with a bachelor's degree had a median net worth of $142,518.
- In 2000, those with a bachelor's degree had a median net worth value almost twice as large as those with a high school diploma only; by 2010, this number had risen to almost three and one-half times as large. The same pattern can be seen when examining the graduate or professional degree to high school diploma ratio; this ratio has increased from 3.5 to 5.8 over the same period.
- Householders age 35 to 44 had the largest percent decline in median net worth from 2005 to 2010 of any age group: 59 percent.
These data were collected in the Survey of Income and Program Participation. More info at http://www.sipp.census.gov/sipp/source.html
