Wealth by Race of Householder

About 1 in 5 households with a White householder and 1 in 20 households with a Black householder had wealth over $1 million (Figure 1).

Just under 1 in 4 households with a Black householder and 1 in 12 households with a White householder had zero or negative wealth.

Households with negative wealth do not have a direct safety net to draw upon in times of need; they are more likely than other households to experience higher rates of financial insecurity and are vulnerable to economic shocks.

Types of assets held and the value of those holdings determine a household’s total wealth.

Wealthier households are more likely to hold income-generating assets like stocks and mutual funds or real estate outside of a primary home. Those with less wealth typically hold a larger share of their wealth in less risky liquid assets, like bank accounts.

Differences in the composition of wealth can have implications for building wealth and passing it along to future generations, contributing to the persistence of the racial wealth gap.

Households with a White householder were more likely than households with a Black householder to own all asset types measured by the SIPP (Figure 2).

Additionally, median values of most assets held by households with White householders were higher than those held by households with Black householders (Figure 3).

But the magnitude of these differences varied by asset type.

Compared to households with a Black householder, those with a White householder in 2021 were:

• 1.1 times more likely to have assets such as checking and savings accounts at financial institutions (97.8% vs. 89.0%) and, conditional on owning these accounts, had median account values 5.4 times larger ($13,500 and $2,500).
  
  
• 1.8 times more likely to own their own home (70.2% vs. 38.6%) and had a median amount of home equity 1.6 times greater ($180,000 vs. $115,000).
  
  
• 1.5 times more likely to own at least one retirement account (65.6% vs. 43.9%) with median account values 4.3 times larger ($100,000 vs. $23,400).
  
  
• 1.9 times more likely to own stocks and mutual funds (30.9% vs. 16.6%) and had median account values 6.4 times larger ($44,500 vs. $7,000).

Unsecured debts, such as student loans, have no assets backing them. A lender cannot repossess someone’s education if the individual fails to pay a student loan, the way an auto lender might repossess a car.

Unsecured debt can promote or hinder wealth accumulation. For example, student loans can provide individuals access to higher education, which is positively associated with wealth [PDF <1.0 MB], but debt burdens can impede individuals’ ability to invest in wealth-building assets.

Households with a Black householder were more likely than those with a White householder to have unsecured debt (61.3% vs. 53.4%), especially student loan (25.8% vs. 17.2%) and medical debt (22.5% vs. 13.4%).

There were no statistically significant differences in the median amount of medical, student loan and credit card debt. But households with a White householder had more other unsecured debt than those with a Black householder (median amount $6,000 vs. $3,500).

While these median amounts are not statistically different from one another, they are just one measure of debt burden. It’s also necessary to consider measures like resources available to pay down loans and the length debts are held, to better gauge the impact of unsecured debt on the long-term financial security of Black borrowers [PDF 2.0 MB] and on the racial wealth gap.

The Survey of Income and Program Participation is a nationally representative, longitudinal survey administered by the Census Bureau that provides comprehensive information on the dynamics of income, employment, household composition and government program participation.

For technical documentation and more information about SIPP data quality, visit the survey’s Technical Documentation webpage.