0823 Publ 5536 (PDF)

Official source: IRS Forms, Instructions & Publications (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5536.pdf), retrieved 2026-10-03. U.S. Government work (17 U.S.C. § 105).

---

The Personal Wealth Study collects data reported on Form 706, United States Estate (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax Return, to estimate the wealth of the living population. Data are limited to that segment of the population for whom personal wealth is at least equal to the estate tax filing threshold in effect for the estimation period. Estimates are taken every 3 years and are based on the estate multiplier technique, which assumes that estate tax returns, taken as a whole, represent a random sample of the living wealthy population, and thus provide a means of producing reasonable estimates of personal wealth utilizing existing data.

• In 2019, top wealthholders with estates valued at $11.4 million or more were required to file a return and represented the top 0.10 percent of all adults in the population.

• Top wealthholders had an estimated combined personal net worth of $7.2 trillion or nearly 7.5 percent of the nation’s wealth when using the Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) estimates of net worth for all U.S. adults. Differences between methodologies can be found at: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/ johnsmoore.pdf.

• An estimated 148,000 males and nearly 102,000 females made up the study in 2019. At the 50th percentile, males reported a median net worth of $16.3 million; females reported $15.7 million.

• The study showed a growing disparity between the distribution of net worth by gender at the 75th percentile and above. This was most noticeable at the 99th percentile where the net worth for males was $322.7 million; for females, it was $191.7 million.

• The ownership of publicly traded stock and closely held stock account for 33.4 percent of all assets held by top wealthholders, while business assets accounted for 17.5 percent.

Top Wealthholders: Percentage Distribution of Total Assets, 2019

Median net worth

$322.7M

$350M

$300M

$250M

$200M

$150M

$100M

$50M

0

25th 50th 75th 90th 95th 99th Percentile of net worth

NOTE: Top wealthholders are defined as individuals with gross estates of at least $11.4 million.

Types of Property Held by Top Wealthholders as a Percentage of Total Assets, 2019

Percentage 25

20

15

10

5

0

Publicly traded stock

Business assets [1]

Closely held stock

Other financial assets [2]

Limited partnerships

[3]

Cash assets

[4]

Other real

estate

Retirement

assets [5]

Personal residence

All other assets [6]

[1] Includes noncorporate business and farm assets.

[2] Includes all government bonds, bonds issued by corporations and foreign governments, mortgages and notes, cash value life insurance, and diversified mutual funds.

[3] Includes limited partnerships, hedge funds, and private equity funds.

[4] Includes cash and cash management accounts.

[5] Includes individual retirement accounts, annuities, and self-employed or Keogh plans.

[6] Includes assets that are unknown or unallocated to a specific asset category.

Tax Statistics Publication 5536 (Rev. 8–2023) Catalog Number 38827P Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service www.irs.gov