Black and white Americans compared on income, wealth, saving and investing, homeownership, business ownership, debt, jobs and poverty, using federal survey data. Each chart shows Black families in orange and white families in blue.
Before-tax family income from all sources, in thousands of 2025 dollars.
Black value ÷ white value, in cents. 100¢ would mean no gap.
Source: Federal Reserve Board, SCF 2025 historical tables, Table 1. Saving question not asked in comparable form in 1989.
Seven LevelsBuild a budget that fits your incomeFinancial literacy, level by level →Family net worth is assets (homes, savings, retirement accounts, businesses) minus debts. Values are in thousands of 2025 dollars.
White value ÷ Black value. 1.0x would mean no gap.
Source: Federal Reserve Board, Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), 2025 historical tables, Table 4. Surveys every three years. Race is that of the survey respondent.
Black American billionaires and their combined share of total Black household wealth.
Estimated net worth, billions of dollars. Forbes 2026 estimates as reported by Billionaires.Africa and UrbanGeekz.
Total U.S. household net worth: Federal Reserve, Financial Accounts of the United States (Z.1), Q2 2026, FRED series BOGZ1FL192090005Q. Black share of household wealth: 2.7% computed from SCF 2025 (Black families are 13.9% of families with mean net worth of $242.5K vs. $1,232.0K for all families); 3.4% from the Fed's Distributional Financial Accounts, Q4 2023, as reported by Inequality.org. Billionaire estimates are mostly private holdings; the SCF is not designed to capture billionaires. Treat the share as an order of magnitude.
Net worth at the top percentiles of Black households, and where the same amount ranks among white households.
Source: Credit Suisse Research and Brandeis University Institute on Assets and Social Policy, "Wealth patterns among the top 5% of African-Americans," November 2014, based on the 2010 SCF. The study reports 12 Black households in its top 1% sample.
The top of the Black wealth distribution compared with the top of the white distribution, from the Fed's household-level survey data. Values are net worth in 2025 dollars.
Each group ranked separately: the lowest net worth among the top 10% of Black households, and among the top 10% of white households.
Percentile among white households of the Black 90th-percentile net worth. The dashed line marks the 90th percentile, where it would sit with no gap.
Each asset type as a share of total assets, top 10% of each group, average of the 2019, 2022 and 2025 surveys.
Source: Federal Reserve Board, Survey of Consumer Finances Summary Extract Public Data, 1989–2025 (scfp1989excel.zip through scfp2025excel.zip, dollar values in 2025 dollars). Race is RACECL4 (race of respondent: white non-Hispanic; Black or African American non-Hispanic). Statistics are computed within each of the five implicates using survey weights and averaged; the resulting medians are within about 3% of the Fed's published Table 4 values. Sample sizes are small at the top: the top 10% of Black households is 40–97 surveyed families per year and the top 1% is 7–22, so the top 1% series is less reliable than the top 10%. "Other" assets include transaction and savings accounts, other real estate, vehicles, cash-value life insurance and similar holdings.
Ownership of retirement accounts (401(k), IRA and similar) and of stocks held directly, outside of funds and retirement accounts.
Thousands of 2025 dollars.
Source: Federal Reserve Board, SCF 2025 historical tables, Table 6. Medians are among families holding the asset.
Seven LevelsLearn how saving and investing workFinancial literacy, level by level →Share of households that own their home, annual average of quarterly rates, and the value of homes owned.
Thousands of 2025 dollars.
Sources: Homeownership rate: U.S. Census Bureau, Housing Vacancies and Homeownership (CPS/HVS), via FRED series BOAAAHORUSQ156N and NHWAHORUSQ156N; 2026 averages Q1–Q3. Home value: Federal Reserve Board, SCF 2025 historical tables, Table 9 (non-Hispanic white and Black non-Hispanic families). Earlier reference point reported by the New York Amsterdam News (Aug. 23, 2023): 38% Black vs. 64% white homeownership in 1960.
Seven LevelsLearn how credit works, the first step toward a home loanFinancial literacy, level by level →Share of families with equity in a privately held business they own and actively manage or hold as an investment.
Source: Federal Reserve Board, SCF 2025 historical tables, Table 9. Median business values for Black families are based on small samples and are not charted.
Share of families holding each type of debt, and the median amount owed among families with any debt.
Thousands of 2025 dollars.
Source: Federal Reserve Board, SCF 2025 historical tables, Table 13 and Alternate Table 13. Mortgage share counts all debt secured by the primary residence. Credit card share counts balances still owed after the most recent payment.
Seven LevelsLearn how debt works and how to pay it downFinancial literacy, level by level →Unemployment rate, annual average of monthly rates, workers 16 and over.
Black rate ÷ white rate.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, via FRED series LNU04000006 and LNU04000003 (not seasonally adjusted). 2025 averages 11 months (October 2025 not published); 2026 averages January–September. Black rates begin in 1972.
Share of people living below the official poverty line.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Poverty in the United States: 2024, Table A-3. "Black" through 2001, "Black alone" from 2002; "White, not Hispanic" through 2001, "White alone, not Hispanic" from 2002. White non-Hispanic series begins in 1974. For 2013 and 2017, the revised estimate is used.
Figures reported by the New York Amsterdam News.
62 cents of Black family income for every dollar of white family income (2021). Wealth: 18 cents per dollar of non-Black wealth (2019).
"Still a Dream" report, Institute for Policy Studies and National Community Reinvestment Coalition. Amsterdam News, Aug. 23, 2023
Black: 38% → 44%. White: 64% → 74%.
Same report. Amsterdam News, Aug. 23, 2023
39.2% of Black households vs. 65.6% of white households held stocks.
Federal Reserve data, via AP. Amsterdam News, Feb. 11, 2024
Black unemployment: about 6% in January 2025, 7.5% in December 2025.
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, via Word in Black. Amsterdam News, Jan. 29, 2026
Black-owned homes in NYC: 209,524 in 2002, 178,659 in 2023 (−14.7%).
Center for an Urban Future. Amsterdam News, Aug. 13, 2026