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Article: The rich and the poor: demographics of the U.S. wealth distribution.
- Article from:
- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review
- Article date:
- July 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Growing concern about economic inequality has created widespread interest in the distribution and concentration of wealth in the United States. Wealth is much more concentrated than income. The wealthiest 1 percent of U.S. households own about one-third of total household net worth, while the top 1 percent of the income distribution receives about 10 percent of total income. At the other end, a few percent of households have negative net worth, and the poorest 20 percent have no net worth as a whole.
This paper describes the demographic attributes of both rich and poor households, and also the composition of their holdings. The data are drawn from surveys of ...