Wealth Inequality

The Great Recession of 2007–2009 triggered a sharp, prolonged decline in the wealth of American families, and an already large wealth gap between white households and Black and Hispanic households widened further in its immediate aftermath. But the racial and ethnic wealth gap has evolved differently for families at different income levels, according to the Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances.

In 2016, the median wealth of all U.S. households was $97,300, up 16% from 2013 but well below the median wealth before the recession began in late 2007 ($139,700 in 2016). In 2016, the median wealth of white households was $171,000. That’s 10 times the wealth of Black households ($17,100)—a larger gap than in 2007—and eight times that of Hispanic households ($20,600), about the same gap as in 2007. (Asians and other racial groups are not separately identified in the Survey of Consumer Finances data. Figure 1.) 12

12 https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/11/01/how-wealth-inequality-has-changed-in-the-u-s-since-the-greatrecession-by-race-ethnicity-and-income/.

In 2016, lower-income white households had a net worth of $22,900, compared with only $5,000 for Black households and $7,900 for Hispanic households.

The income correlates to differences in homeownership rates among families—49% for lower-income whites, versus 31% for lower-income Blacks and 30% for lower-income Hispanics.

25% of white households are in the lower-income tier, compared with about 50% each of Black and Hispanic households.

Therefore low levels of wealth are much more prevalent among Black and Hispanic households than among white households.

Black Immigrants

There were 4.2 million Black immigrants living in the U.S. in 2016, up from just 816,000 in 1980, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. The number of Black immigrants living in the country has risen 71%. Approximately one in ten Blacks (9%) living in the U.S. are foreign-born, up from 3% in 1980. (Immigrants make up 10% of the Black population in the March 2016 Current Population Survey.13

13 https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/01/24/key-facts-about-black-immigrants-in-the-u-s/