https://twitter.com/graykimbrough/status/1198703644721524744?s=20
This is a chart by economist Gray Kimbrough from 2019. I recently saw it resurface and so I thought I would reshare it here on the blog.
The y-axis is the percentage of US household wealth (by demographic cohort). And the x-axis is median cohort age. So one way to look at this chart is as follows.
When the median age of a Baby Boomer was 35 (which happened in 1990), they owned about 21% of US household wealth.
When the median age of a Gen Xer was 35 (which happened in 2008), they owned about 9% of US household wealth.
Millennials haven't yet hit a median age of 35, but in 2019 they owned about 3.2% of US household wealth.
Of course, one thing to keep in mind is that these demographic cohorts are not the same size . In 1990, Boomers represented 31% of the US population. And in 2008, Gen Xers were only 22% of the population.
But even if you normalize, there are some intergenerational wealth gaps here.