How Many Millionaires Live in the US? Statistics and Facts 2026

The short answer: about 23.6 million, with caveats

The most widely used count of American millionaires comes from the UBS Global Wealth Report, which estimates the wealth of adults in 56 markets that together hold more than 92 percent of world wealth. Its 2026 edition, published on 30 June 2026, puts the number of US adults with a net worth of 1 million dollars or more at 23,627,000 at the end of 2025. Net worth here means everything a person owns, including the family home and retirement savings, minus everything they owe.

By that definition the United States has more millionaires than the next nine countries combined. Using Census Bureau estimates of 341.8 million residents on 1 July 2025, of whom 21.1 percent were under 18, there are about 270 million adults, so the UBS figure is equivalent to roughly 8.8 percent of the adult population. The figure is an estimate built from national balance sheets and wealth distributions, not a list of named people, and UBS revises it each year.

Ask a different question and the answer changes. Fewer than 9 million Americans are millionaires if the home is excluded, about 13.5 million households sit in the top tenth of the wealth distribution, where the entry point was 2.1 million dollars in the latest survey year, and fewer than 800,000 tax returns report an income of a million dollars in a single year. The rest of this report explains each measure and what it reveals. Global context is in our global wealth pyramid by net worth.

Four ways to count a millionaire, four different totals

The gap between published counts is not an error in any one of them. It comes from three choices: what is counted as wealth, who is counted, and whether the measure is wealth or income. UBS uses total net worth per adult. Capgemini uses investable assets per person and leaves out the primary residence, collectibles and consumer durables. The Federal Reserve measures households or families, so a married couple with 1.2 million dollars counts once, while UBS may count two adults with 600,000 dollars each as non-millionaires. The IRS sees only annual income reported on tax returns.

Same country, five answers: the count ranges from 23.6 million adults to 0.8 million tax returns depending on the definition used.

For most purposes the UBS figure answers the question of how many Americans are millionaires, the Capgemini figure is closer to the market served by private banks, the Federal Reserve data show how wealth is distributed, and the IRS figure shows how many households earn a millionaire-sized income. None of them should be compared with another without adjusting for these differences.

UBS: 23.6 million adult millionaires at the end of 2025

Global personal wealth rose 10.8 percent in dollar terms in 2025, the fastest pace in at least three years, according to UBS. The number of dollar millionaires worldwide grew 1.5 percent, close to one million people, or more than 2,600 a day. The United States produced almost half of those new millionaires, more than 440,000, which works out at about 1,200 a day. UBS attributes the gains mainly to strong investment returns, including a US stock market rally that had run for more than three years, and to higher values of non-financial assets.

The 2025 rise was faster than the year before. The 2025 edition of the report recorded more than 379,000 new US millionaires in 2024, just over 1,000 a day, and put the end-2024 total at almost 24 million. The two editions are not directly comparable: UBS revised its back data in 2026, and the new edition implies an end-2024 base of about 23.2 million (BusinessStats calculation from the 1.9 percent growth rate). Readers should therefore compare growth within one edition rather than subtract totals from different editions.

The gap between the average and the median is the clearest sign of how unevenly that wealth is spread. Average wealth per American adult, 696,277 dollars, is second only to Switzerland (910,382 dollars), yet the median adult holds 68,998 dollars, which ranks only 28th among the markets UBS covers. A large group of millionaires and a very small group of the ultra-rich pull the average up, while the typical adult is far from seven figures. Rankings of average wealth are covered in our table of countries with the highest wealth per adult.

The US has more millionaires than the next nine countries combined

UBS estimates that there were about 57.5 million dollar millionaires in the world at the end of 2025. Mainland China ranks second with just over 5.3 million, followed by Japan (2.9 million), Germany (just over 2.6 million), the United Kingdom (just over 2.4 million) and France (just under 2.4 million). Each of these five has more than two million, but none has even a quarter of the US total.

One country, four in ten: the 23.6 million US millionaires outnumber the next nine markets combined (21.2 million).

Adding up ranks two to ten gives 21.2 million, still about 2.5 million fewer than the United States alone, and the US stays ahead even if Canada (2.1 million in the previous edition) is included. Exchange rates matter for the comparison: the euro rose almost 9 percent against the dollar in 2025, which lifted the dollar value of European wealth and is one reason why Europe, the Middle East and Africa recorded faster wealth growth (17.5 percent) than the Americas (8.5 percent).

Relative to population the picture is different. UBS notes that close to one adult in six in Luxembourg and about one in seven in Switzerland is a millionaire, much higher than the US ratio of about one in eleven. Worldwide, only 1.5 percent of adults have more than a million dollars, while just over 41 percent have less than 10,000 dollars. For the regional distribution of the very richest, see our data on the ultra-wealthy population by region.

From everyday millionaires to the 5 million dollar plus tier

Most American millionaires are not rich in the sense of the Forbes lists. UBS calls adults with 1 million to 5 million dollars everyday millionaires, or EMILLIs, and estimated about 52 million of them worldwide at the end of 2024, more than four times the 13 million of 2000, with the United States as the largest single group. Their wealth is typically held in a home, retirement accounts and diversified funds rather than in a business they control.

Above that level the numbers fall quickly. The 2026 report puts the number of adults worldwide with 5 million to 100 million dollars at just over 7 million, of whom more than 4 million live in the United States. Subtracting that tier and the much smaller group above 100 million dollars from the 23.6 million total leaves roughly 19.5 million US adults in the 1 million to 5 million range, so about five in six American millionaires are everyday millionaires (BusinessStats calculation from UBS figures).

The Federal Reserve gives a second view of the upper tiers through its Distributional Financial Accounts. In the third quarter of 2022, the most recent quarter with published cutoffs, a household needed 2.14 million dollars to enter the top 10 percent, 11.0 million dollars to enter the top 1 percent and 45.8 million dollars to enter the top 0.1 percent. In the second quarter of 2026 the top 0.1 percent consisted of 136,779 households. Billionaires sit far above all of these thresholds and are profiled in our list of the richest people in America and our global billionaire count.

What the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances shows

The Survey of Consumer Finances, run every three years for the Federal Reserve Board by NORC at the University of Chicago, is the most detailed public source on American household balance sheets. Its 2025 results, released on 9 October 2026, are based on interviews with 4,367 families and include a special sample of wealthy households, which makes it the best official source for describing millionaires. All dollar values below are in 2025 dollars.

Between 2022 and 2025 real median family net worth rose 2 percent to 215,900 dollars, while the mean rose 7 percent to 1.24 million dollars. The mean is almost six times the median, a gap that reflects how much wealth is held at the top. The average family is therefore, on paper, a millionaire, but the typical family is not.

The million-dollar line falls inside the 75th to 90th band: its median family held 1.27 million dollars in 2025, and the top 10 percent median rose 19 percent to 4.94 million dollars.

The survey does not publish a single count of millionaire families, but its tables pin down where the line falls. The median family in the 75th to 90th percentile band of net worth held 1.27 million dollars in 2025. Because that median sits at roughly the 82.5th percentile of all families, every family from that point upward is above 1 million dollars, which means at least 17.5 percent of families, or about one in six, were millionaires. Applied to the roughly 135 million households in the Federal Reserve national accounts, that is at least 23 million millionaire households, a figure consistent with the UBS count of adults (BusinessStats calculation).

Gains between 2022 and 2025 were concentrated at the top. The median for the top 10 percent rose 19 percent to 4.94 million dollars and the median for the 75th to 90th band rose 12 percent, while the median for the bottom quarter fell from 3,800 to 1,700 dollars. Distribution data for the whole world are summarised in our report on the share of wealth held by the richest percent.

Age: wealth builds slowly and peaks late

Age is the strongest single predictor of net worth in the survey, because wealth is accumulated over a working life through saving, home equity and investment growth. Families headed by someone under 35 had a median net worth of just 33,000 dollars in 2025, down 23 percent from 2022. The median rises in every older group and reaches 504,900 dollars for families headed by someone aged 75 or over, the only group whose median grew strongly, by 37 percent.

Average millionaires from 45 onward: mean net worth passes 1 million dollars in the 45 to 54 group, but even among families aged 75 and over the median is about half a million.

Mean net worth crosses 1 million dollars from the 45 to 54 age group onward: 1.24 million dollars at 45 to 54, 1.88 million at 55 to 64, 1.90 million at 65 to 74 and 1.96 million at 75 and over. That pattern means millionaires are heavily concentrated among older households, while young families with high incomes often have not yet had time to build seven-figure balance sheets. The age profile of the population behind these numbers is in our US population statistics.

Income, education and home ownership

Income and wealth are linked, but less tightly than many people expect. Families in the top 10 percent of the income distribution had a median net worth of 3.67 million dollars in 2025, up 31 percent from 2022, and a median income of 387,200 dollars. One step down, families between the 80th and 90th income percentiles had a median net worth of 814,600 dollars: well off, but on average not millionaires. Below the 60th income percentile the median net worth is under 200,000 dollars.

Only the top income tenth is a millionaire group in median terms: its median family is worth 3.67 million dollars, four and a half times the next group.

Education shows a similar step. Families headed by someone with a college degree had a median net worth of 505,400 dollars and a mean of 2.26 million dollars in 2025, compared with 106,700 and 470,600 dollars for families headed by a high school graduate. Home ownership is another dividing line: owners had a median net worth of 458,900 dollars, renters just 10,600 dollars. Families in metropolitan areas had a mean of 1.34 million dollars, more than twice the 577,100 dollars outside them.

In every group the mean is several times the median, which shows that millionaires exist across all of these categories but make up a larger share in some than in others. The survey classifies families by the characteristics of the reference person or respondent, so the figures describe household groups, not individuals.

Where millionaire wealth sits: stocks, businesses and homes

The composition of wealth changes as wealth rises. For most families the home is the largest asset: 65.6 percent of families owned their primary residence in 2025 and the median net housing value among owners was 230,000 dollars. For wealthier families, financial assets and private businesses dominate, which is why the number of millionaires moves so closely with the stock market.

Stock ownership is broad but shallow. In 2025, 56 percent of families held stocks directly or through funds and retirement accounts, down from 58 percent in 2022, and the median holding among them rose 36 percent to 77,400 dollars. Retirement accounts were held by 54.9 percent of families, with a median balance of 106,000 dollars and a mean of 451,100 dollars. Only 15.4 percent of families owned business equity, but the mean value among them was 1.57 million dollars, making private businesses one of the main routes to the upper wealth tiers.

Stocks are even more concentrated than wealth: the top 1 percent holds 32.5 percent of net worth but 50.9 percent of equities and fund shares.

The Distributional Financial Accounts show the same pattern at national scale. In the second quarter of 2026 the top 1 percent of households owned 50.9 percent of all corporate equities and mutual fund shares and the next 9 percent owned another 37.2 percent, so the wealthiest tenth held 88.1 percent of stock market wealth. By contrast, the top 1 percent owned only 13.4 percent of real estate and the 90th to 99th percentile group 30.3 percent; most housing wealth belongs to the middle and upper-middle of the distribution. Market performance behind these gains is tracked in our Nasdaq market data, and interest rate conditions in our federal funds rate series.

The top 1 percent and the top 10 percent in 2026

The Federal Reserve Distributional Financial Accounts combine the Survey of Consumer Finances with the quarterly national balance sheet, so they give an up-to-date picture of how total household wealth is split. In the second quarter of 2026 the top 1 percent of households held 32.5 percent of US net worth, up from 31.1 percent a year earlier. The top 0.1 percent alone held 15.0 percent, more than six times the 2.3 percent held by the entire bottom half of households.

Two thirds at the top: the richest 10 percent of households hold 68.9 percent of net worth; the bottom half holds 2.3 percent.

In dollar terms, US household net worth in the four groups added up to about 185.6 trillion dollars in the second quarter of 2026. The top 1 percent held 60.3 trillion dollars, up from 51.6 trillion a year earlier, and the 90th to 99th percentile group held 67.6 trillion. The 50th to 90th percentile group, which contains many households close to the millionaire line, held 53.4 trillion, and the bottom half 4.3 trillion dollars.

The averages are BusinessStats calculations from the published levels and household counts, and they show where millionaires are found. Almost every household in the top tenth is a millionaire several times over, while the average household in the 50th to 90th group holds just under 1 million dollars, so millionaires in that group are concentrated near its upper end. Comparable shares for other countries appear in our ranking of ultra-high-net-worth individuals by country.

Million-dollar incomes: what IRS data show

Wealth and income are different things. A retired couple with a paid-off home and a large pension may be worth several million dollars but report a modest income, while a founder who sells a company may report a huge income in one year only. IRS Statistics of Income data count tax returns by adjusted gross income (AGI), and the latest state-level files, for tax year 2023, show 799,320 returns with AGI of 1 million dollars or more out of 159.9 million returns.

Peak in 2021: million-dollar returns jumped 44 percent to 873,670 as capital gains surged, then eased to about 800,000 in 2022 and 2023.

The series tracks financial markets closely. Million-dollar returns rose from 541,410 in tax year 2018 to 873,670 in 2021, when capital gains and business income surged, then fell to 800,900 in 2022 and 799,320 in 2023. The income reported on these returns peaked at 3.33 trillion dollars in 2021, 22.5 percent of all AGI, and was 2.54 trillion dollars in 2023, 16.6 percent of the total. The average return in this group reported about 3.2 million dollars of AGI in 2023.

The same files break the totals down by state, and they are the only official source for a state ranking of million-dollar earners. Earlier rankings on this page that were based on marketing surveys have been removed. Note that a state count of high-income returns measures where high earners file, not where millionaires by net worth live, and the two lists are not the same. For the wider economy behind these incomes see our US GDP data.

Investable-asset millionaires: the Capgemini count

Capgemini Research Institute, in its World Wealth Report 2026 published on 4 June 2026, counts high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs): people with at least 1 million dollars in investable assets, excluding the primary residence, collectibles, consumables and consumer durables. On this stricter test the United States had 8.7 million millionaires in 2025, up 9.2 percent, and added 736,000 people, more than any other country.

Worldwide Capgemini counts 25.3 million HNWIs with 98.3 trillion dollars of wealth, up 8.7 percent, and about 250,000 ultra-high-net-worth individuals with at least 30 million dollars of investable assets. Its segments are the millionaires next door (1 million to 5 million dollars), mid-tier millionaires (5 million to 30 million) and the ultra-high-net-worth (30 million and above). The faster growth in the Capgemini count than in the UBS count in 2025 partly reflects its focus on financial assets, which rose with the stock market, while UBS also includes housing and other wealth; the two firms also use different models and data.

The ratio between the two counts is itself informative. With 8.7 million investable-asset millionaires against 23.6 million net-worth millionaires, roughly 15 million American millionaires depend on a home, a private business or a retirement entitlement to clear the line. Money market fund balances, one of the liquid assets included by Capgemini, are tracked in our data on US money market fund assets.

Outlook: forecasts and the coming wealth transfer

UBS does not publish a US-specific millionaire forecast in its 2026 report. Its 2025 edition projected about 5.34 million additional millionaires worldwide by 2029, almost 9 percent more than at the end of 2024, and expected North America to remain one of the main engines of wealth growth. The figure of 31.2 million US millionaires by 2030 that appeared in the previous edition of this page could not be traced to a current primary source and has been removed.

The largest structural change ahead is inheritance. UBS estimates that more than 83 trillion dollars will change hands worldwide over the next 20 to 25 years, 9 trillion between spouses and 74 trillion between generations, and that the United States will account for more than 29 trillion dollars, the most of any country. Because survey data show wealth peaking among families aged 75 and over, that transfer will move a large part of the millionaire population to younger heirs.

In the short term the count will follow asset prices. The Federal Reserve data show the top 1 percent share rising by 0.8 percentage points in the second quarter of 2026 alone, as equity values climbed. A sustained fall in stock prices would reduce the number of millionaires, as it did when million-dollar tax returns fell 8 percent between 2021 and 2022. Property market prospects, the other major driver, are covered in our report on real estate prospects in US cities.

US millionaires in eight numbers

Questions about American millionaires, answered with official data