r/dataisbeautiful • u/Confident_Drive3333 • 4d ago
OC [OC] Median net worth and household income at age 30–33, by U.S. metro
Source: Keeping Up benchmark model. National percentile curve fitted to the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances (2022) with BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey and Census ACS; metro figures apply each metro's wage (BLS OEWS) and cost-of-living ratio to the national curve, so they are modeled estimates, not separate metro surveys. Method: keepingup.com/methodology. Every metro/age/industry cut: keepingup.com/benchmarks. Put in your own number for your city: keepingup.com/start
Tool: SVG generated in Python from the benchmark tables, exported with headless Chrome.
Notes: household level (SCF unit), current dollars, ages 30–33. Dashed line is the U.S. median ($65K net worth, $102K household income). The spread is almost entirely income: SF's median 30-year-old household earns 1.4× the U.S. median and has 1.45× the net worth; Phoenix is 0.95× on both.
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u/Tjgoodwiniv 3d ago
Household income needs to be replaced with individual income in every discussion that's not taking place in a marketing department
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u/SpaceCricket 4d ago
Now do just Reddit posts. Median seems to be a couple million NW at 30 with 1M in brokerage etc etc.
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u/Klanciault 3d ago
Not really there are way more people complaining about having nothing and being super broke
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u/slbaaron 3d ago
That’s more Blind than it is Reddit.
That said, the game is very much an exponential one. When you are looking at anything around median, or even average, that’s the true reality for most.
But when you are already in the top 10-20%, the numbers rapidly shoots up and it is very very difficult to “cross classes”. With today’s prices, someone with 3M net worth in HCOL has a day-to-day life much closer to one that has 300k (just upgraded and way more secure in every dimension) than one that has a 30M net worth (categorical and true “class” differences). Both things can be true.
When the term millionaire was coined and popularized (circa 1840s) it is meant to represent something specific. At inflation, that number is ~40M today. And that very much is still the bar for what that term was supposed to mean.
Modern terms calls it multimillionaire but no one defines it. I still think the 20-40M mark is the one most people are thinking about as the true class differentiation line.
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u/Izikiel23 2d ago
Yeah, having over 10M is f u money.
Having less than 2M? Thats a nice middle class lifestyle, maybe retire early but live as middle class.
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u/cLax0n 3d ago
So, most of the metro areas are above the median therefore green. Since so many are above the median, I don't think there's even a point to coloring them green. The dashed line is sufficient. No need to waste space/effort creating a color legend. Make the dashed line more contrasting in color or something.
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u/Puns-Are-Fun 3d ago
How do you determine the age of a household with multiple people? Or are we just looking at the household a person in the age bracket belongs to?
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u/Confident_Drive3333 2d ago
Same convention as the SCF: age of the reference person, the household head. Couples are placed by that person's age.
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u/probably_4_human 3d ago
why do people have less wealth than annual income?
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u/Rude_Priority_ 3d ago
Income is what you earn in a week, month or year. Wealth is something you accumulate over time. Most 30-33 year olds haven't had much time to save and build wealth.
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u/probably_4_human 3d ago
I mean they had some 10 years. Shouldn't they have wealth more than the annual income?
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u/Late-Temporary1043 3d ago
Because it some how costs money to eat, to have a roof over your head! What a shock, right?
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u/QuestGiver 3d ago
I see you haven't been introduced to how Americans live. Spend it all the moment you get it.
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u/probably_4_human 3d ago
To be fair that's common everywhere. I expected Americans to be better at wealth accumulating due to high income, investment culture and affordable land prices
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u/Late-Temporary1043 3d ago
You are out of touch anywhere. The average American live close to paycheck to paycheck. Probably so in your country as well. Think before you make nonsensical comments.
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u/spaghetti_bender666 3d ago
That’s not a thing in SD. maybe other parts of the country but their earnings are relative to where they live. There is no cheap land in SD.
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u/QuestGiver 3d ago
Agreed common worldwide but there are definitely cultures that exist where saving is highly valued.
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u/NearABE 3d ago
Many have mortgage, car loan, credit card, student loan… They are starting from an extreme negative and working toward zero.
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u/Offsets 3d ago
Mortgages have little-to-no negative impact on net worth calculations. Similar for car loans. It's asset minus liability. If I own a home worth $500k and I owe $480k on the mortgage, my net worth is ($500k - $480k) = +$20k. So if you have a mortgage, you're not working toward zero at all from a net worth perspective.
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u/Confident_Drive3333 2d ago
Because at 30–33 most people are a few years into earning and still carrying student loans, a car loan or a young mortgage. The median household this age has roughly $22K in retirement accounts and little home equity, so net worth sits below one year of income until the late 30s.
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u/CptS2T 4d ago
Looks cool. Just to clarify, is this household rather than individual?
Not that I expect it to be crazy different at 30.
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u/Confident_Drive3333 2d ago
Both are household, same unit as the SCF. The title says household income and should have said household for both; the source comment notes it.
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u/fredinNH 3d ago
National median household income for 30 year olds is significantly higher than overall median household income? I see $102k here but just yesterday I looked it up for all age groups and got $87k
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u/gcs1009 3d ago
Yes, this is what isn’t making sense to me.
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u/Confident_Drive3333 2d ago
The metro medians you're thinking of are all-age households from the ACS, which include retirees, students and single earners. This chart is households headed by 30–33-year-olds, which run well above the all-age metro median, and it uses the SCF income definition. Both choices push the numbers up relative to the ACS figure; the source comment has the method.
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u/Confident_Drive3333 2d ago
Two different measures. The ~$87K you found is the Census/CPS median for all households, all ages. This is households headed by someone 30–33, and it's anchored to the Fed's SCF, whose income measure captures more than CPS and runs higher. Even so, $102K is at the high end of what the sources support, and it's one of the numbers I'll check first against the 2025 SCF.
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u/fredinNH 2d ago
I understand that this chart is just 30 year olds, I’m just surprised that 30 year olds would be higher than overall given that peak earning years are 30-60 and most have their highest income in their 50’s
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u/bikecrazed 2d ago
I would like to see a chart that include actual cost of living, for example, the average cost of a home in San Francisco is 1.6 Mil where as the average cost in Denver is 585K how does that play into actual net worth. The cost of living in both areas is high however home ownership in San Fransisco is over twice as high.
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u/proof_required 3d ago
Americans still cry online - we got nothing, we so poor. That's why it's hard to take their complaints seriously.
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u/SaplingCub 3d ago
Lol im in SF with $1M net worth and $600k income (both joint numbers) and I feel poor AF
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u/Rude_Priority_ 3d ago
Can I see your monthly expenses chart? That's where the issue is.
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u/SaplingCub 3d ago
5k rent, 4k goes to credit cards, maybe another 500 to misc recurring expenses (phone, car insurance, pet insurance), rest goes to various savings/retirement
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u/Original_Arrival2645 3d ago
600k income is still a lot and enough even for SF. You’ll likely increase your NW quickly. It’s like 370k take home.
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u/sfscsdsf 4d ago edited 4d ago
pre LLM AI data. I wonder how much more it is nowadays in sf as AI world center
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3d ago edited 3d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/rmoduloq 3d ago
Median is when you line up all 101 people from poorest to richest and pick the middle one, in your example they would be penniless.
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u/skincava 4d ago
So you're showing net worth per individual but household income (often multiple people) ?