On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that many households that earn more than $200,000 don't think they're rich even though they earn more than 97% of families. So, who is rich?
EARNINGS
50% of households in the US earned less than $48,201 in 2006
That income is not evenly distributed around the US. It's easier to feel rich in Mississippi, where you're earning more than half the population if you earn over $34.343. It takes $66,752 in New Jersey.
10% of households in the US earned more than $100,000 in 2005
In terms of dollars, it turns out that this top 10% earned almost 50% of all the earnings in the country. With 114 million households in the US in 2005, this means that about 1 million households have 50% of the earnings while 113 million households split the other 50%.
1% of households in the US earned more than $348,000 in 2005
The average income of the top 1% was $1.1 million.
The top 10th of 1% earned an average of $5.6 million.
NET WORTH
The Federal Reserve reports on net worth every 3 years, so these numbers are from 2004. Net worth is the total value of assets (what you have in savings, real estate, business equity, etc.) minus liabilities (what you owe).
$93,100 was the mid-point for net worth in the US; half of households had more, half had less.
The bottom 25% had an average $13,300.
The top 10% had an average $831,600.
It's important to know that age matters a lot in this case. Younger people have saved less, people just before retirement have the most, and oldest folks have progressively less as they spend savings during their retirement years.
CNN reported that 8.9 million households (7.8% of households, or 1 in 13) had at least $1 million in net worth not counting the value of their primary home. These folks actually average $2.2 million in net worth. Who are they? They're in their late 50's, almost half are retired, and about one-fifth of them own all or part of a business.
So, if one in every two households has almost $100,000 and one in every ten households has nearly $1 million, what does the top 1% have? A recent survey revealed that about 1 million households now have more than $5 Million in net worth excluding their 1st home. Now, that's rich!