Key Findings from the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances

The Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is normally a triennial cross-sectional survey of U.S. families. The survey data include information on families' balance sheets, pensions, income, and demographic characteristics.

The 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) is the most recent survey conducted. Between the 2019 and 2022 surveys, the COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted society and economic activity. Nonetheless, the SCF reveals broad-based improvements in U.S. family finances over this period, particularly with respect to net worth. Key findings from the survey are listed below.

Income

Between the 2019 and 2022 surveys, real median family income (which is measured for the year before the survey) rose a relatively modest 3 percent, while real mean family income grew 5 percent. Increases in income were experienced across the income distribution but were largest at the top, consistent with some increase in income inequality over this period. Indeed, the between-survey growth in mean income was one of the largest three-year changes over the history of the modern SCF.

• A relatively large share of families, 28 percent, reported that their income during the 2021 calendar year differed from its usual amount—that is, their “usual income”—reflecting elevated shares of both families with higher-than-usual income and families with lower-than-usual income.

• Increases in median and mean income were relatively widespread across different types of families, whether grouped by economic characteristics (for example, level of usual income, level of wealth, urbanicity, or homeowner status) or demographic characteristics (for example, age or race and ethnicity), and any declines were modest. The exception is across educational groups, where increases in both median and mean income were nearly fully concentrated among families in which the reference person had a college degree.

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Net Worth

• Between 2019 and 2022, real median net worth surged 37 percent, and real mean net worth increased 23 percent. These patterns imply some narrowing of the wealth distribution between surveys. Indeed, the 2019–22 growth in median net worth was the largest three-year increase over the history of the modern SCF, more than double the next-largest one on record.

• Increases in both median and mean net worth were near universal across different types of families, grouped by either economic or demographic characteristics.

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Assets

• The homeownership rate increased slightly between 2019 and 2022, to 66.1 percent. For families that owned a home, the median net housing value (the value of a home minus homesecured debt) rose from $139,100 in 2019 to $201,000 in 2022, as home values increased and housing debt was rather flat. Net housing values grew substantially for families across the usual income distribution, reaching their highest levels on record. Correspondingly, housing affordability fell to historic lows, as the median home was worth more than 4.6 times the median family income.

• Just over two-thirds of working-age families participated in retirement plans in 2022, up slightly from 2019. While participation remained uneven across the income distribution, all major income groups saw increases in participation between 2019 and 2022. Conditional mean balances in account-type retirement plans rose for families in the upper half of the usual income distribution but fell for those in the bottom half.

• Participation in the stock market increased across the usual income distribution between 2019 and 2022, with families between the 50th and 90th percentiles experiencing a substantial increase. Amid a sizable rise in major stock indexes over this period, all major income groups experienced robust growth in the conditional median and mean values of their holdings.

• In 2022, 20 percent of all families, 14 percent of families in the bottom half of the usual income distribution, and nearly half of families in the top decile of the usual income distribution owned a privately held business. Families that owned businesses had higher income and wealth than those that did not. Further, a family’s income and wealth increased with the number of employees in their business.

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Debt

• Debt secured by residential property was about unchanged between 2019 and 2022. About 42 percent of families in both 2019 and 2022 had debt secured by their primary residence, and the median amount of this debt decreased by less than 1 percent to $155,600 in 2022.

• Between 2019 and 2022, the share of families with credit card debt was fairly stable (around 45 percent). However, median and mean balances for families with credit card debt declined noticeably to $2,700 and $6,100, respectively.

• The share of families that had student debt in 2022 was 22 percent, unchanged from 2019. Among families with student debt, median and mean balances were essentially stable, hovering around $25,000 and $47,000, respectively. Similar to 2019, the distribution of student debt became increasingly skewed toward higher earners.

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Financial Vulnerability

• All SCF measures of financial fragility declined between 2019 and 2022. For debtors, the median leverage ratio—that is, a family’s total debt relative to its total assets—declined to a 20-year low of 29.2 percent, and the median payment-to-income ratio dropped to the lowest level ever recorded in the SCF (13.4 percent). The fraction of families with payment-to-income ratios greater than 40 percent declined 0.9 percentage point to 6.5 percent, also the lowest value on record.

• Families’ ability to stay current on their financial obligations was steady between 2019 and 2022 and remained well below levels in the SCF surveys that followed the financial crisis. Between 2019 and 2022, the share of families that declared bankruptcy in the past five years declined to 1.3 percent.

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The original content for this article and more information can be found on the Federal Reserve website. To view the full Survey of Consumer Finances (PDF), click here.