Chart 01
Real Disposable Income per Person
Monthly · After-tax income, including transfers, adjusted for prices and population. January 2020 = 100. This is an average across people, not the income of a typical household.
Source data: A229RX0
Data surface
Household Financial Health
How Americans are doing: income, purchasing power, jobs, saving, debt stress, housing and wealth. Key household conditions come first, followed by Federal Reserve balance-sheet detail. Aggregate wealth measures include households and nonprofit organizations; they do not describe the typical family.
Sources are checked daily. Observations arrive on each source’s weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual release schedule. Each chart shows its own data date; a successful daily check does not create a new observation. Revisions can change earlier values.
Income, prices and jobs
Start with purchasing power and access to work. Read income per person alongside wages and employment before drawing conclusions from asset prices.
Chart 02
Wage Growth and Consumer Inflation
Monthly · When average wage growth exceeds inflation, average hourly pay gains purchasing power. Changing worker composition can move average pay; this is not the median worker’s raise.
Source data: CES0500000003 · CPIAUCSL
Chart 03
U.S. Unemployment Rate
Monthly · The share of the labor force actively seeking work and available for a job. People who stop looking leave this denominator; compare with the employment rate below.
Source data: UNRATE
Chart 04
Employment Rate, Ages 25 to 54
Monthly · The employed share of adults ages 25–54, including people outside the labor force in the denominator. Annual population-control changes, especially January 2025 and 2026, can cause breaks. October 2025 was not collected during the federal shutdown.
Source data: LNS12300060
Chart 05
Household Prices Since 2020
Monthly · Price levels, not inflation rates: 130 means prices are 30% above January 2020. Slower inflation does not reverse prior increases. Shelter includes owners’ equivalent rent and is not a home-purchase price index.
Source data: CPIAUCSL · CUSR0000SAF11 · CUSR0000SAH1 · CPIENGSL
Chart 06
Real Median Household Income
Annual · The middle household’s annual money income, adjusted for inflation; 2000 = 100. This complements the per-person average. It is a before-tax survey measure and arrives annually with a longer lag.
Source data: MEHOINUSA672N
Saving and debt stress
Saving and required payments describe the room in household budgets. Delinquencies reveal stress that aggregate income and wealth can conceal.
Chart 07
Personal Saving Rate
Monthly · Personal saving as a share of after-tax income. An aggregate flow, not the median household’s bank balance or the share of people able to cover an emergency.
Source data: PSAVERT
Chart 08
Household Debt Payments as a Share of Income
Quarterly · Required scheduled debt payments relative to disposable income. Uses the Fed’s current credit-bureau methodology, available from 2005; mortgage payments include escrow. Do not splice this with the discontinued older method.
Source data: TDSP
Chart 09
Delinquency Rates on Household Bank Loans
Quarterly · Commercial-bank-held balances that are 30+ days past due or nonaccrual. Excludes loans held elsewhere. These are delinquency stock rates, unlike the New York Fed’s flow into serious delinquency.
Source data: DRCCLACBS · DROCLACBS · DRSFRMACBS
Chart 10
Household Debt Relative to Income
Quarterly · Outstanding household debt compared with a year of disposable income. 100% means debt equals annual income. This measures the stock of debt, not the required payment burden above.
Source data: Federal Reserve figure data (CSV)
Wealth, housing and who benefits
Higher aggregate wealth does not mean every household is better off. Compare the distribution, housing leverage and borrowing costs.
Chart 11
Household Net Worth Relative to Income
Quarterly · Assets less liabilities relative to annual disposable income. 800% means eight times a year’s income. The household-and-nonprofit total can rise while many families struggle.
Source data: HNONWPDPI
Chart 12
Who Holds U.S. Household Wealth?
Quarterly · Shares of aggregate household net worth by wealth percentile, not income percentile. These unequal-sized groups show why a rising total says little about the typical household.
Source data: WFRBST01134 · WFRBSN09161 · WFRBSN40188 · WFRBSB50215
Chart 13
Homeowners’ Equity as a Share of Real Estate
Quarterly · Household real-estate value less home mortgages, as a share of real-estate value. An aggregate leverage cushion; it does not measure first-time-buyer affordability or the median owner’s equity.
Source data: HOEREPHRE
Chart 14
Thirty-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate
Weekly · The average offered 30-year fixed mortgage rate from Freddie Mac’s weekly survey. This affects new borrowing and refinancing, not the rate paid on every existing mortgage.
Source data: MORTGAGE30US
Equity exposure and valuation changes
These Federal Reserve balance-sheet measures explain how stock and property markets affect household wealth. They include nonprofit organizations.
Chart 15
Equities as % of U.S. Household Financial Assets
Quarterly · Direct and indirect corporate equities divided by financial assets. Includes funds, insurance and defined-contribution pensions. This is an asset share, not the percentage of households owning stocks; market gains can raise it without new purchases.
Source data: BOGZ1FL153064486Q
Chart 16
Direct and Indirect Household Equity Holdings
Quarterly · Direct corporate stock ownership compared with equity exposure through funds, insurance and defined-contribution pensions. Dollar holdings are nominal; the indirect measure is not all mutual-fund assets.
Source data: HNOCEA · BOGZ1FL153064175Q
Chart 17
Equity and Real-Estate Valuation Gains or Losses
Quarterly · Quarterly dollar gains or losses caused by valuation changes in direct and indirect equities and real estate. Excludes purchases and sales; it is neither saving nor the entire change in net worth.
Source data: BOGZ1FR153064475Q · BOGZ1FR155035005Q
More household context
For debt by type and serious delinquency, see Consumer Credit and Household Debt. Explore Housing Market for housing supply and Equality for further distributional detail.
The Federal Reserve’s quarterly Financial Accounts report provides the balance-sheet analysis behind the wealth charts. Compare reporting periods and distinguish household averages from medians when using these figures in an article.