The Climb: Wealth Inequality in America, to scale

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But you still have a long, long way to go.

The average 0.01% household has $971M… and beyond

You made it to

The average 0.1%

$184,209,560

The 136,095 households at the top. Richer than 99.9% of U.S. households. Keep going ↑

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Stacked in $100 bills: 660 ft 1 in

Median household: $211,292

Bar chart of estimated household net worth at each percentile of U.S. households, poorest to richest. The median household holds $211,292. The 99th percentile holds $15,033,455. The average top-1% household holds $40,434,990, about 191 times the median. The top-1% column keeps rising to the average top-0.1% household, $184,209,560. At this scale the climb is 36,842 pixels tall. A text version of everything on the graph follows.

The climb, as text

Each bar is 1% of American households, poorest to richest. On screen, one pixel is $5,000; stack heights assume a $100 bill is 0.0043 inches thick. From $0 upward:

  1. The poorest 1% of households: -$84,119. The poorest 7% owe more than they own, and the poorest 8% have $1 or less.
  2. Median household: $211,292.
  3. At $1,000,000 (a stack of $100 bills 3 ft 7 in tall): 80% of American households are entirely below this line.
  4. At $2,000,000 (a stack of $100 bills 7 ft 2 in tall): 89% of American households are entirely below this line.
  5. At $3.5 Million: The cost of greed: Work 40 hours a week, all 52 weeks, at the federal minimum wage, and you earn $15,080 before taxes. Rent, groceries, transportation, and healthcare all have to fit inside that number. How is anyone supposed to build a life on that?
  6. At $5,000,000 (a stack of $100 bills 17 ft 11 in tall): 95% of American households are entirely below this line.
  7. The 97th percentile, $6,766,078. Since 2012, even the rich between the top five and twenty percent are worse off. Only the top five percent are better off.
  8. At $7.7 Million: The cost of greed: The federal minimum wage last went up in 2009. A child born that year is now old enough to have a job. Through an entire childhood, rent and groceries kept getting more expensive. The federal wage floor stayed exactly where it was, and is worth even less thanks to inflation. (It is now worth the lowest amount since 1950!)
  9. The 98th percentile, $9,311,214. How much better off? So much better off that the top two to four percent are actually off the chart at this scale.
  10. At $10,000,000 (a stack of $100 bills 35 ft 10 in tall): 98% of American households are entirely below this line.
  11. At $11 Million: The cost of greed: People work hard and get a modest raise. But now they no longer qualify for SNAP. That raise of $0.25 an hour costs them about $200 a month. They’d need a raise of more than a dollar just to get back to where they were.
  12. At $12.6 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $12.6 Million, the stack would be 45 ft 2 in tall: The Hollywood Sign. Each letter looking over the silver screen is 45 feet tall. Stacked in $100 bills, that’s a decent pile o’ gold.
  13. At $13.9 Million: The cost of greed: Even worse, another raise means they no longer qualify for childcare assistance. That costs more than each of them makes! One of them probably has to quit their job to take care of the kids, cutting their income in half, which ironically once again qualifies them for childcare!
  14. The 99th percentile, $15,033,455. You’ve scrolled past 99% of American households. Everyone below the 98th percentile fits in about 2 screens. The average top-1% household takes 9.
  15. At $17 Million: The cost of greed: You can earn too much to qualify for assistance and still not earn enough to cover rent, food, and childcare. Crossing an eligibility line doesn’t make those bills smaller. It can simply mean facing the same impossible budget with less help.
  16. At $20 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $20 Million, the stack would be 71 ft 8 in tall: A standard U.S. bowling lane. The total length of an official bowling lane, including the approach area, lane, and pit. All those bills in the way of picking up the spare… change?
  17. At $22.1 Million: The cost of greed: A struggling parent gets judged for owning a smartphone. That phone may be how they apply for jobs, receive their work schedule, bank, and hear from their child’s school. Cutting it from the budget can mean cutting themselves off from earning a living. To criticize someone in poverty for owning a smartphone is like criticizing them for wearing shoes; it demonstrates a profound disconnect from what is required to participate in our society.
  18. At $25,000,000 (a stack of $100 bills 89 ft 7 in tall): everyone except the top 1% is below this line.
  19. At $26.4 Million: The cost of greed: If your budget is short $500 a month, canceling a $15 subscription leaves you short $485. You have one less small pleasure and almost exactly the same financial crisis. Why do we keep pretending the missing money is hiding in people’s meager entertainment budgets?
  20. At $28 Million: The top 1% owns as much as the bottom 90%. The top 1% of households owns almost a third (32%) of all U.S. wealth: roughly as much as the entire bottom 90% put together. The bottom half owns just 2.5%. (Federal Reserve, Q1 2026)
  21. At $30 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $30 Million, the stack would be 107 ft 6 in tall: TIME Magazine, October 2025. “I’m a Millionaire. No One Needs More Than $30 Million.”
  22. At $32 Million: The cost of greed: You can make this month’s budget balance by stopping your retirement contributions. The bills get paid, and the crisis seems to disappear. But you just took it from an older version of yourself. What future crisis did you just create?
  23. At $33 Million: The cost of greed: The top 10% of U.S. earners now account for 49% of all consumer spending. What happens when there is nobody left with any money to buy all the things that get made?
  24. At $36.5 Million: No, we’re not lost. The climb to the average 1%er really is this long. These numbers are hard to grasp, which is why this graph exists.
  25. At $38.5 Million: The cost of greed: In 2025, the median first-time homebuyer was 40 years old (up from 29 in the 1980s and age 30 as recently as 2010). What used to be a step toward financial stability is now arriving in middle age for many buyers. Will they even pay it off by the time they retire?
  26. At $40,000,000 (a stack of $100 bills 143 ft 4 in tall): everyone except the top 1% is below this line.
  27. You made it to the average 1%: $40,434,990 (a stack of $100 bills 144 ft 11 in tall). Richer than 99% of U.S. households. But you have a long way to go: the average 0.1% household has $184.2 Million.
  28. At $44 Million: The 1% isn’t the top. You just passed the average top-1% household. The richest tenth of the 1%, about 136,000 households, average more than four times that.
  29. At $46.6 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $46.6 Million, the stack would be 167 ft tall: Niagara’s Horseshoe Falls. From the brink to the river below, about 167 feet of falling water. Or $100 bills.
  30. At $49.3 Million: The cost of greed: A $400,000 mortgage at 6% over 30 years comes with about $463,000 in interest if paid on schedule. You repay more than $863,000, before property taxes, insurance, or repairs. The cost of borrowing exceeds the amount you borrowed.
  31. At $51.9 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $51.9 Million, the stack would be 186 ft tall: The Leaning Tower of Pisa. Eight stories of Italian marble, about 186 feet. Ours doesn’t lean.
  32. At $58.3 Million: The cost of greed: Someone can finish a full shift and go home to the car they drove to work. Having a job doesn’t guarantee being able to afford rent. The vehicle that keeps them employed can also be the only thing keeping them sheltered.
  33. At $59.4 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $59.4 Million, the stack would be 213 ft tall: The Sydney Opera House. From the harbor to the top of its highest shell: 213 feet.
  34. At $60,000,000 (a stack of $100 bills 215 ft tall): 1.5 times the average top-1% household.
  35. At $64 Million: The cost of greed: Your kindergarten teacher is likely still paying for their college debt. They may never break even. The average borrower takes 20 years to pay off their loans.
  36. At $65.7 Million: The cost of greed: Two graduates can earn the same degree and start at the same salary. One has parents who paid the tuition. The other has years of loan payments ahead. The first can start building savings while the second is still paying for the chance to compete.
  37. At $67 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $67 Million, the stack would be 240 ft tall: The Taj Mahal. Ground to the tip of its finial: about 240 feet.
  38. At $69.8 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $69.8 Million, the stack would be 250 ft tall: 25 NBA basketball hoops. Twenty-five regulation NBA rims (10 feet each), stacked end to end.
  39. At $70.8 Million: The cost of greed: At $7.25 an hour, a $10,000 tuition bill takes nearly 35 weeks of full-time work to earn, before taxes. That’s only tuition. The student still needs food, housing, books, and time to attend the classes they’re working to pay for.
  40. At $72.5 Million: Feeling it yet? Every screen you scroll is about $5 million, as much as 24 median households own combined. You’ve climbed about 15 of those screens to get here.
  41. At $74.4 Million: The cost of greed: A graduate paying $300 a month toward student loans sends away $3,600 a year that could otherwise help build retirement savings. Paying off the loan eventually stops the bill. It doesn’t give back the years those savings could have been growing.
  42. At $76.7 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $76.7 Million, the stack would be 275 ft tall: General Sherman. The giant sequoia in California’s Sequoia National Park: 275 feet tall, and the largest tree on Earth by volume.
  43. At $78.8 Million: The cost of greed: If money runs out before a student finishes college, the loans don’t disappear with the unfinished degree. They can leave school carrying the cost of a college education without the credential that was supposed to help them earn enough to repay it.
  44. At $80,000,000 (a stack of $100 bills 286 ft 8 in tall): 2 times the average top-1% household.
  45. At $80.4 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $80.4 Million, the stack would be 288 ft tall: The U.S. Capitol Dome. Ground to the top of the Statue of Freedom: 288 feet.
  46. At $81.5 Million: The cost of greed: Teachers often buy classroom supplies with their own money because their students need them. Some buy food and clothing too. We ask people whose paychecks are already stretched to quietly make up the difference when a child’s school or family doesn’t have enough.
  47. At $84.1 Million: The cost of greed: A worker can spend decades doing everything their job requires and still reach retirement age without enough savings. Food, rent, and medical bills used the money first. Getting older happens on schedule. Being able to afford it doesn’t.
  48. At $85.1 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $85.1 Million, the stack would be 305 ft tall: The Statue of Liberty. Ground to the tip of the torch: 305 feet, pedestal included.
  49. At $87.8 Million: The cost of greed: Starting a business is easier when your family can cover rent if it fails. Without that cushion, the same risk can threaten your home and your children’s meals. We celebrate the courage to take chances while ignoring who can afford the consequences.
  50. At $92 Million: Halfway to the 0.1%. You’ve climbed more than twice the height of the average top-1% household, and you’re only halfway.
  51. At $92.9 Million: The cost of greed: In 2024, 18.3 million American households struggled at times to afford enough food. That’s what food insecurity means. In a country capable of producing enormous fortunes, millions of families still have to wonder whether their groceries will last.
  52. At $95.8 Million: The cost of greed: When a parent skips dinner so the children can eat, the grocery budget may look like it worked. Everyone else got fed. The missing expense was the parent’s meal. Hunger becomes the invisible way a family makes the numbers add up.
  53. At $97.7 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $97.7 Million, the stack would be 350 ft tall: A 35-story building. At about 10 feet a floor, a 35-story tower is roughly 350 feet tall.
  54. At $98.9 Million: The cost of greed: When grocery prices rise more slowly, that doesn’t mean they fall back to where they were before. Families are still paying the higher prices left behind. The headline says inflation has improved. The same paycheck still brings home fewer groceries.
  55. At $100.5 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $100.5 Million, the stack would be 360 ft tall: A football field, end zones included. 360 feet, goal line to goal line plus both end zones. Stood on end.
  56. At $102.6 Million: The cost of greed: At $1,250 a month, childcare costs $15,000 a year for one child. That’s money a parent has to earn just to be able to show up at work. Rent, food, and everything else still have to come out of what’s left.
  57. At $106 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $106 Million, the stack would be 380 ft tall: Hyperion. The tallest known living tree, a coast redwood in California: about 380 feet.
  58. At $110.6 Million: The cost of greed: Wait until you can afford children, people say. But what happens when paying off student loans and finding a home takes decades? The years when a couple hoped to raise a family can disappear while they’re still trying to afford the starting line.
  59. At $112.7 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $112.7 Million, the stack would be 404 ft tall: Salisbury Cathedral’s spire. The tallest church spire in Britain: 404 feet.
  60. At $113.9 Million: The cost of greed: In a 2025 KFF poll, about one in three adults said they had skipped or postponed needed healthcare because of the cost. These are people making medical decisions around their bank balances. Being able to pay shouldn’t determine whether you get the care you need.
  61. At $116.7 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $116.7 Million, the stack would be 418 ft tall: Kingda Ka’s drop. The record-setting roller coaster in New Jersey dropped riders 418 feet.
  62. At $118.5 Million: The cost of greed: You can pay your health insurance premiums every month and still face a deductible you don’t have the money to cover. You did the responsible thing and bought coverage. Actually using it can still mean borrowing, draining your savings, or delaying care.
  63. At $120,000,000 (a stack of $100 bills 430 ft tall): 3 times the average top-1% household.
  64. At $121 Million: The cost of greed: A serious illness can hit a family’s finances twice: medical bills arrive just as the person who earns the paycheck can no longer work. Expenses rise while income falls. The time someone needs to recover can become the time their family falls furthest behind.
  65. At $122.8 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $122.8 Million, the stack would be 440 ft tall: The Sydney Harbour Bridge. From the water to the top of its steel arch: 440 feet.
  66. At $125 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $125 Million, the stack would be 448 ft tall: St. Peter’s Basilica. Floor to the top of the cross on its dome, in Vatican City: 448 feet.
  67. At $126 Million: The cost of greed: For a parent without paid leave, time at home with a newborn can mean time without income. Rent is still due. Groceries still cost money. The family is asked to welcome a child while figuring out how much care they can afford to give.
  68. At $128.4 Million: The cost of greed: A $5,000 credit-card balance at 24% APR starts out costing roughly $100 a month in interest alone. Send $100, and you’ve barely touched what you owe. An entire payment can disappear just keeping the debt close to where it already was.
  69. At $132.1 Million: The cost of greed: Fall behind on bills, and your credit score can drop. A lower score can make the next loan more expensive. Then more of your paycheck goes to interest. The financial trouble you had yesterday becomes a reason to charge you more tomorrow.
  70. At $134.2 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $134.2 Million, the stack would be 481 ft tall: The Great Pyramid of Giza. About 481 feet when it was finished, 4,500 years ago. The tallest thing people built for nearly 4,000 years.
  71. At $135.8 Million: The cost of greed: A family coming up $300 short each month has to find $3,600 somewhere every year. If they borrow that difference for five years, they’ve added $18,000 in debt before interest. No extravagant purchase. Just the repeated cost of getting through another month.
  72. At $138.1 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $138.1 Million, the stack would be 495 ft tall: Rouen Cathedral. Its cast-iron spire made it the tallest building in the world for a few years in the 1870s: 495 feet.
  73. At $140.6 Million: The cost of greed: Finally have $200 left each month? If you still owe $10,000 from the years your paycheck fell short, that’s more than four years of payments even without interest. The raise helped. But the years you spent struggling are still collecting from you.
  74. At $143.7 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $143.7 Million, the stack would be 515 ft tall: Cologne Cathedral. The twin spires of Germany’s most-visited landmark: 515 feet.
  75. At $145.6 Million: The cost of greed: A family can pay every bill on time by quietly taking money out of savings each month. From the outside, everything looks fine. But the cushion is shrinking. The budget only works because the money meant for their future is paying for the present.
  76. At $146.8 Million: The cost of greed: A 2026 report estimated Americans paid $2.1 trillion in credit-card interest since 2010. That’s money gone before it can pay down the purchases themselves. For families borrowing to cover necessities, staying afloat has become an enormous expense of its own.
  77. At $147.9 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $147.9 Million, the stack would be 530 ft tall: Ulm Minster. The tallest church in the world: 530 feet.
  78. At $150,000,000 (a stack of $100 bills 537 ft 6 in tall): 3.7 times the average top-1% household.
  79. At $150.8 Million: The cost of greed: Roughly 111 million Americans carry credit-card debt from month to month, according to a 2026 report. Every new paycheck arrives with part of it already spoken for. They’re trying to pay for today’s life while still being charged for yesterday’s.
  80. At $152.9 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $152.9 Million, the stack would be 548 ft tall: Philadelphia City Hall. Topped by a statue of William Penn: 548 feet, the tallest masonry building ever finished.
  81. At $155 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $155 Million, the stack would be 555 ft 5 in tall: The Washington Monument. 555 feet, 5 inches. It’s taller than the Great Pyramid and the tallest stone obelisk in the world.
  82. At $156.2 Million: The cost of greed: The wealthiest 10% hold nearly 90% of corporate stocks and mutual-fund shares. So when the market rises, most of those gains go to people who already have the most. A record on Wall Street doesn’t automatically put more money in a worker’s paycheck.
  83. At $158 Million: The cost of greed: A wealthy stockholder can borrow against shares that have grown in value, getting cash without selling them (and triggering capital-gains tax). A worker earning extra wages doesn’t get that option for their paycheck. How you get your money can matter as much as how much you get.
  84. At $164.9 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $164.9 Million, the stack would be 591 ft tall: The Gherkin. London’s rounded glass tower at 30 St Mary Axe: 591 feet.
  85. At $166 Million: The cost of greed: If a $1 billion fortune earns 5% in a year, that’s $50 million before taxes. It would take 1,000 people each earning $50,000 to earn that much in wages. The money at the top can grow on a scale ordinary work cannot match.
  86. At $168.8 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $168.8 Million, the stack would be 605 ft tall: Seattle’s Space Needle. 605 feet to the tip. The average top-0.1% household stacks higher still.
  87. At $170.2 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $170.2 Million, the stack would be 610 ft tall: Two Statues of Liberty. One on top of the other, pedestals included: 610 feet.
  88. At $171.5 Million: The cost of greed: A company’s deliveries use public roads. Its workers were educated in public schools. Its technology may build on publicly funded research. We all help pay for the foundations of private fortunes. Why should sharing in the prosperity be reserved for so few?
  89. At $172.6 Million: The cost of greed: A worker can write a letter to Congress between shifts. A billionaire can finance political advertising and hire people to press their interests every working day. Both get one vote. Only one can afford an entire operation devoted to getting heard.
  90. At $175.8 Million: If we stacked $100 bills to $175.8 Million, the stack would be 630 ft tall: The Gateway Arch. St. Louis’s stainless-steel arch, the tallest monument in the U.S.: 630 feet.
  91. At $177.3 Million: The cost of greed: Take a $10 billion fortune. Just 1% is $100 million: enough for 10,000 families to receive $10,000 each. The billionaire would still have $9.9 billion. For those families, that could mean getting out of debt, staying housed, or escaping poverty.
  92. The top of the climb: the average top-0.1% household, $184,209,560 (a stack of $100 bills 660 ft 1 in tall). Beyond it, the "Keep scrolling" elevator rides on up: 0.01%, $971,104,743; 0.001% (The billionaire class), $5,105,808,443; Elon Musk, about $800,000,000,000.

Image 1 Scroll up

Wealth Inequality in America Drawn to scale

Each column above is 1% of American households, lined up from poorest to richest. Picture each one as a stack of $100 bills: the median household’s stack is about 9 inches tall. The average top-1% household’s is 145 feet, and it keeps getting taller and taller…

Inspired by Politizane’s video Wealth Inequality in America.

Bars 1–99: estimated net worth at each percentile, 2023 Survey of Consumer Finances, adjusted to 2026 dollars (×1.1); the poorest 8% are shown with their reported debt. Top 1%: average, Federal Reserve Distributional Financial Accounts, Q1 2026. “Think” and “Ideal”: Norton & Ariely (2011), spread across percentiles for illustration. Sources & method · The Companion (PDF)

This is the bottom. The graph starts above you.

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