Baby boomers amassed record wealth, but gains are uneven

As the first members of the baby boom generation reach their 80th birthdays in 2026, new data from the Pew Research Center underscore both the scale of their financial footprint and the uneven way that wealth is distributed within their ranks.

In 2022, baby boomer households — then headed by Americans ages 58 to 76 — had a median net worth of $432,200, adjusted for inflation to 2024 dollars. That figure surpasses the median wealth of similarly aged households in earlier generations. In 2001, when most 58- to 76-year-olds were members of the Silent Generation, median household wealth stood at $335,900. In 1983, households led by members of the Greatest Generation in that same age range had a typical net worth of $185,300.

Taken together, boomer households controlled about $77 trillion in wealth in 2022, a staggering sum that helps explain why the generation is often described as the wealthiest cohort of older Americans in U.S. history.

But headline numbers tell only part of the story.

As with other generations, wealth among boomers is highly concentrated. The top 10% of boomer households account for 71% of the generation’s total wealth. That means the vast majority of assets are held by a relatively small slice of households, leaving many others with far more modest financial cushions as they move deeper into retirement.

Education plays a significant role

Among boomer households headed by someone with a bachelor’s degree or higher, median wealth reached $1,077,200 in 2022. That figure exceeds the inflation-adjusted median wealth of college-educated households in the Greatest Generation and is statistically similar to that of college-educated older adults in the Silent Generation.

By contrast, boomers without a four-year degree have not seen the same gains relative to earlier generations. In many cases, their median wealth mirrors that of similarly educated older adults in previous decades.

In one notable comparison, households headed by a boomer with some college education — but not a bachelor’s degree — had a median net worth of $330,500 in 2022. That is significantly lower than the $527,700 median wealth recorded in 2001 for similarly educated households led by older adults at the time.

The disparity aligns with broader economic research showing that adults without a four-year degree have faced mounting challenges over the past several decades. Wages for non-college-educated men, in particular, have stagnated or declined in real terms, limiting their ability to build assets through homeownership, retirement savings and investments.

In short, while baby boomers collectively hold more wealth than any previous generation of older Americans — in part because of their sheer size — the gains are far from universal. The generation’s record-breaking totals reflect the prosperity of college-educated households and the compounding effects of decades of asset growth. For many others, especially those without a four-year degree, the financial picture looks far less extraordinary.

As boomers continue to age, those disparities may shape not only retirement security for millions of households but also the scale and distribution of wealth passed on to younger generations.