How many in usa have networth 5 million or more is a question with no single official answer, because the government does not publish a count at that threshold. What exists are survey data from the Federal Reserve, which let researchers estimate that roughly three to five million households, or about three percent of the total, are at or above five million dollars. I will show how that estimate is built so you can judge it yourself.
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The data source
The main source is the Survey of Consumer Finances, run by the Federal Reserve every three years. It reports wealth by percentile, which is how you can see where a given net worth falls. In the 2022 survey, the top one percent of households had a net worth above roughly eleven million dollars, and the top ten percent had more than about one point nine million. The five million dollar line falls between those two points, around the top three to four percent of households. The exact percentile depends on the data and on revisions.
How many in usa have networth 5 million or more: from percentile to count
- The United States has roughly 130 to 132 million households.
- If about three to four percent have a net worth of five million dollars or more, that gives roughly four to five million households.
- If the true share is nearer two to three percent, the count is closer to three to four million.
That is why a reasonable range is three to five million households. Because the survey is a sample and wealthy households are hard to measure, the real figure could differ.
Households versus individuals
This count is for households, not people. A household may contain a couple and children, so the number of individuals living in such households is larger, while the number of individuals who personally own that wealth is smaller if assets are shared. When you see a statistic that says “X million Americans”, check which unit it uses.
How other sources compare
- UBS counts about twenty-three million US millionaires, those with a net worth of at least one million dollars, but does not publish a clean five million count.
- Capgemini counts roughly seven million HNWIs in the United States, defined by one million in investable assets excluding the home.
- Altrata and Knight Frank publish counts of ultra high net worth individuals at thirty million, which is a much smaller group.
None of these reports directly answers the five million question, so any page that gives a precise number is probably extrapolating.
What goes into net worth here
These figures count total net worth: homes, retirement accounts, investments and business equity, minus debts. A household with a three million dollar home, a million in retirement accounts and a million in other assets would qualify, even though their annual income might be modest. Many people near five million are retirees or business owners whose wealth is tied up in property or a company. If you want to see how your own number is built, our guide on how to calculate net worth is a good start.
What kinds of households sit near five million
The households in this range are more varied than the stereotype suggests. Many are older: wealth tends to rise with age, and households headed by people in their sixties and seventies hold a large share of the total, thanks to decades of saving, retirement accounts and home appreciation. A good number are business owners whose firm is worth more than anything else they own. Others are professionals such as physicians, lawyers and executives who have accumulated assets over a long career. A smaller number are younger people with equity compensation from technology companies, whose paper wealth can change quickly with the share price. What they have in common is mostly time and ownership, not extravagant income.
It also helps to know how wealth is distributed inside the top few percent. A household at five million is far closer to the median than to the top one percent in wealth terms, and far, far from the billionaire class, which numbers only a few hundred in the United States.
Why the count changes
- Stock and housing booms move many households across the line.
- Inflation raises nominal wealth without raising real wealth.
- Survey methods and weighting are revised.
For related context, read our explainers on the top one percent’s wealth and on how many high net worth individuals there are worldwide.
Quick questions
Is there an official count? No. It is derived from survey data.
Is five million in the top one percent? No, the top one percent threshold is higher by most recent estimates.
Do homes count? Yes, minus the mortgage.
Where to check
The Federal Reserve publishes the Survey of Consumer Finances and its Distributional Financial Accounts, which are the best primary sources.
In short, how many in usa have networth 5 million or more is best answered as “roughly three to five million households, about three percent”, an estimate based on Federal Reserve survey data. This article is informational and is not financial advice.
Featured image: CRS-9 mission (28348649546).jpg by SpaceX, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
