US-SOS.INFO

Comparison (U.S. wealth concentration)

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Here’s a useful, apples-to-apples comparison using the most standard “share of total wealth held by the top X%” framing—with an explicit caveat: high-quality, continuously comparable U.S. wealth-share series are easiest to cite today (Fed/FRED), but are harder to pin to exactly “1900” with the same methodology. Most rigorous long-run U.S. series in the academic literature start around 1913–1916 (estate-tax-based reconstructions), which is why many references describe the “early 20th century” rather than precisely 1900. 

“Now” (best official, regularly updated series)

  • Top 1% share of U.S. household net worth: about 31.7% (Q3 2025) per the Federal Reserve series published on FRED. 

(Depending on source and definition, you’ll also see somewhat higher “top 1% wealth share” figures—for example, some research-based reconstructions and journalistic summaries cite values in the mid-30%s.  )

“1900” (closest historically comparable evidence)

  • Around 1900 / pre–World War I: the U.S. was in (or near) its first Gilded Age peak of wealth concentration. The best-known academic reconstructions of U.S. top wealth shares using estate-tax methods show very high top shares in the early 20th century and a large decline from the 1930s–1940s, with the series beginning in the 1916 vicinity. 

Practical takeaway:

  • Then (circa 1900 / pre-WWI): top-wealth concentration was extremely high (often described as near-Gilded-Age levels).
  • Now: top 1% holds roughly about one-third of household net worth by the Fed measure, and many research series put it higher depending on concept and method. 

If you want, I can also give you a one-page “print” comparison table (Top 1%, Top 10%, Bottom 50%) using FRED for “now” and the standard academic series for the early 20th century (closest years to 1900).

References

  1. Federal Reserve / FRED (current distribution series) Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED). Share of Net Worth Held by the Top 1% (99th to 100th Wealth Percentiles) (WFRBST01134). Accessed 2026-02-28. 
  2. Long-run top wealth shares (historical reconstruction; early 20th century baseline) Kopczuk, Wojciech & Saez, Emmanuel. Top Wealth Shares in the United States, 1916–2000: Evidence from Estate Tax Returns. (PDF hosted by UC Berkeley). Accessed 2026-02-28. 
  3. Related widely used series on wealth concentration since 1913 Saez, Emmanuel & Zucman, Gabriel. Wealth Inequality in the United States since 1913: Evidence from Capitalized Income Tax Data. Accessed 2026-02-28. 
  4. WID/Our World in Data wealth-share dataset description (broad historical coverage; cross-country comparable) Our World in Data. Wealth share of the richest 1% (WID). Last updated Jan 12, 2026. Accessed 2026-02-28.