What net worth is considered rich?

Net worth levels, from comfortable to ultra high net worth

Each level below comes from a survey, a wealth firm or the Fed’s ranking of U.S. households. The last column is the share of households with at least that much.

Shares are calculated by NetWorthCalculator.com from the Fed’s 2025 public data file. They count households, with home equity and retirement accounts included. Wealth firms count individual people, and Capgemini counts only money you can invest, so their levels hold fewer people than the last column suggests.

What net worth is considered wealthy?

$2.3 million is the average answer Americans gave. Charles Schwab’s 2025 Modern Wealth Survey asked 2,000 of them, aged 21 to 75, what net worth a person in their area needs to be considered wealthy. Financially comfortable came in at $839,000.

Only about 11% of U.S. households have $2.3 million or more. It sits between the 88th and 89th percentiles, a little under the top 10% cutoff of $2.54 million. So Americans set the bar for wealthy at roughly the top tenth.

Since 2021 the answer has moved between $1.9 million and $2.5 million.

Charles Schwab Modern Wealth Survey, 2021 to 2025. Each figure is the average answer.

Age changes the answer. In 2025, boomers said $2.8 million, Gen X and millennials said $2.1 million, and Gen Z said $1.7 million.

Schwab’s 2026 findings, published in October 2026, cover cryptocurrency and don’t repeat the question. The 2025 answer is the newest one.

What is considered high net worth?

$1 million is the usual cutoff. Firms differ on what counts toward it. Capgemini’s World Wealth Report defines a high-net-worth individual as someone with $1 million or more to invest, leaving out the main home, collectibles and other belongings. Knight Frank and Altrata count total net worth of $1 million or more.

By Capgemini’s stricter rule, the U.S. had 8.7 million high-net-worth individuals at the end of 2025. Counting everything a household owns, home included, about 21.5% of U.S. households clear $1 million. The counts are side by side in how many millionaires are in America. To see your own figure without the house, use the liquid net worth calculator.

Above $1 million, the levels are:

• Very high net worth: $5 million to $30 million, by Altrata’s definition. Capgemini calls the same band mid-tier millionaires, and calls $1 million to $5 million “millionaires next door.”
• Ultra high net worth: $30 million or more. Altrata, Knight Frank and Capgemini all use this cutoff.

How many ultra-high-net-worth individuals are in the U.S.?

Altrata counted 206,880 people in the U.S. with a net worth of $30 million or more at the end of 2025. Knight Frank’s 2026 report puts the number at 251,352. Both use the same $30 million cutoff and different models.

In the Fed’s household ranking, $30 million is inside the top 1%, which starts near $16.3 million, and short of the top 0.1%, which starts at about $64 million.

Wealth tests the SEC uses

The SEC uses 3 wealth tests to decide who may buy certain private investments or pay an adviser a performance fee. Two measure net worth and one counts investments. They’re the closest thing to an official definition of rich, and they leave out your home.

• Accredited investor: a net worth over $1 million, alone or with a spouse, without counting your primary residence. Income also qualifies: over $200,000 in each of the last 2 years, or $300,000 with a spouse, with the same expected this year. (Rule 501)
• Qualified client: a net worth over $2.7 million without your primary residence, or at least $1.4 million managed by the adviser. The SEC raised these from $2.2 million and $1.1 million on June 29, 2026. (SEC order)
• Qualified purchaser: at least $5 million in investments. (Investment Company Act)

These are the dollar tests only. Each rule lists other ways to qualify.

Upper middle class and upper class net worth

There are many ways to split classes by net worth. This table uses a plain one: U.S. households in 5 equal groups, using the Fed’s 2025 data.

Our calculation from the Fed’s 2025 public data. Cut points are the 20th, 40th, 60th and 80th percentiles.

By this split, an upper middle class net worth is about $347,000 to $1.08 million. A household with exactly $1 million is still in that group, because the top fifth starts at about $1.08 million.

If upper class means the top fifth, it starts at about $1.08 million. If it means the top 10%, it starts at about $2.54 million. The net worth percentile calculator shows every cutoff, including the top 2% at about $10.1 million.

Rich vs. wealthy, and why the house matters

In everyday use, rich often means a high income or visible spending, and wealthy means owning enough that the money lasts. Net worth measures the second one. More in what is the difference between rich and wealthy.

A household with $2.3 million invested can draw about $92,000 a year at a 4% withdrawal rate. A household whose $2.3 million is mostly a paid-off house has the same net worth and far less to spend. That’s why Capgemini and the SEC leave the home out.

For round numbers, see is a $1 million net worth rich, is $3 million considered wealthy and is $5 million rich. For your age group, see average net worth by age.

Sources

• Charles Schwab, 2025 Modern Wealth Survey press release (July 9, 2025) and findings: the wealthy and financially comfortable averages, by year and by generation.
• Charles Schwab, Modern Wealth Survey 2026, cryptocurrency and digital assets findings (October 2026).
• Federal Reserve, Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025 (October 9, 2026): median net worth.
• Federal Reserve, 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances public data: our percentiles and household shares.
• Capgemini, World Wealth Report 2026 press release (June 2026): the high-net-worth definition, wealth bands and the U.S. count.
• Altrata, World Ultra Wealth Report 2026 (June 2026): very high and ultra high net worth definitions, 206,880 in the U.S.
• Knight Frank, The Wealth Report 2026: definitions, and 251,352 in the U.S. from the report’s databank.
• SEC, 17 CFR 230.501(a): accredited investor.
• SEC, Release IA-6961 (April 28, 2026): qualified client amounts, effective June 29, 2026.
• 15 U.S.C. 80a-2(a)(51): qualified purchaser.