Average Retirement Savings by Age (2025)
What families at each age have in 401(k)s, IRAs and similar accounts, from the Federal Reserve’s 2025 survey, and how many have none. Enter yours to see where it ranks.
Empty: all ages
401(k)s, IRAs and similar; a couple’s combined. Stays on this device.
Compare
ExampleYour rank, ages 45–54
69thpercentile
More saved than about 69% of families headed by someone aged 45–54, counting the 37% with none.
- $1M or more7%
- $500K–$1M7%
- $250K–$500K9%
- $100K–$250KYou14%
- $50K–$100K9%
- $10K–$50K11%
- $1–$10K6%
- None37%
- Among families with accounts
- 50th percentile
- Median with an account, ages 45–54
- $133,000
- With none, ages 45–54
- 37%
Compares your number with a survey of US families; not financial advice. SourcesTerms
What counts as retirement savingsAs the Federal Reserve measures it
All accounts: traditional and Roth IRAs, Keoghs, and account-type workplace plans such as 401(k)s, 403(b)s and the federal Thrift Savings Plan, including plans left with past employers and accounts you are drawing from. A couple’s accounts count together.
401(k)s only: the workplace plans on their own, without IRAs. The survey doesn’t separate 401(k)s from 403(b)s and thrift plans, so they are counted together.
Not counted: Social Security and traditional pensions that pay a set monthly income, health savings and 529 accounts, and ordinary savings or brokerage accounts.
How this works: Method, 6 sources, Checked against 1 worked example,
How this works
Method
Your balance is placed among US families whose reference person is your age, on the 1st to 99th percentiles of the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, counting families with no retirement account at $0, and again among only the families that have one. We work the percentiles out from the Fed’s public data file, weighting each family and pooling the survey’s five imputations as the Fed does; the share with an account and the median and mean among them match the Fed’s public-data tables to the dollar. The 401(k)-only view is our split of the same data.
Sources
- Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances (Federal Reserve Bulletin, 2026)
- Survey of Consumer Finances 2025, summary extract public data (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2026)
- SCF historic tables based on public data, in 2025 dollars (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2026)
- SCF historic tables based on internal data, in 2025 dollars (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2026)
- Survey of Consumer Finances 2025 codebook (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2026)
- Survey of Consumer Finances: frequently asked questions (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System)
How it’s tested
One worked example for this page is checked by automated tests before every release: given the inputs, the tool must show the expected answer.
Limits
Compares your number with a survey of US families; not financial advice.
Changes
- First published, on the Fed’s 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances: your rank for your age among all families and among savers, 401(k)s on their own, and two by-age pages.
Worked example: $250,000 at 58
A 58-year-old family with $250,000 across its 401(k)s and IRAs is compared with families aged 55–64. In the 2025 survey that is the 69th percentile of all families that age, because 37% of them have no retirement account at all. Among the families that do have one it ranks at the 51st percentile, just above their median of $239,000. Both ranks are true; they answer different questions.
Retirement savings by age, 2025
Share of families with a retirement account, and the median and mean balance among them, in 2025 dollars, by age of the reference person. Federal Reserve, SCF historic tables (internal data), Table 6.
| Age | Have an account | Median, if any | Mean, if any |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 35 | 48.8% | $21,000 | $48,400 |
| 35–44 | 59.6% | $61,200 | $182,400 |
| 45–54 | 63% | $133,000 | $415,800 |
| 55–64 | 63.1% | $239,000 | $670,200 |
| 65–74 | 49% | $257,000 | $767,600 |
| 75 and over | 44.6% | $257,000 | $798,700 |
| All families | 54.9% | $106,000 | $451,100 |
Averages run far above medians. Among families aged 55–64 with an account, the mean is $670,200 against a median of $239,000, almost three times as much. For “what does a typical saver my age have?”, the median is the better answer; for “how much is in these accounts in total?”, the mean.
Almost half of families have no retirement account: 51% under 35, 37% at 45–54 and 55% at 75 and over, from the public data. Older families’ numbers are low partly because many have spent or withdrawn their savings, and partly because these accounts are younger than they are: in 1989 only 6.3% of families 75 and over had one, against 44.6% in 2025. Traditional pensions that pay a monthly income aren’t counted here at all.
Medians rose in every age group between 2022 and 2025, most for the oldest families: at 75 and over the median went from $143,400 to $257,000. Families under 35 were the exception on the mean, which slipped from $53,800 to $48,400, though their median edged up to $21,000.
Retirement savings percentiles by age, counting families with none
Balance at each percentile of all families, in 2025 dollars. Our weighted calculation from the Fed’s SCF 2025 public data.
| Age | With none | Median | 75th | 90th | 99th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 35 | 51% | $0 | $19,000 | $75,000 | $259,800 |
| 35–44 | 40% | $7,000 | $95,000 | $326,000 | $1,358,000 |
| 45–54 | 37% | $37,000 | $202,000 | $713,000 | $2,920,000 |
| 55–64 | 37% | $45,000 | $400,000 | $1,260,000 | $4,760,000 |
| 65–74 | 51% | $0 | $251,000 | $1,175,000 | $5,099,000 |
| 75 and over | 55% | $0 | $175,000 | $1,125,000 | $5,230,000 |
| All families | 45% | $5,000 | $132,000 | $630,000 | $3,662,000 |
Median retirement savings (if any) since 1989, 2025 dollars
| Survey | All | <35 | 35–44 | 45–54 | 55–64 | 65–74 | 75+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $106K | $21K | $61K | $133K | $239K | $257K | $257K |
| 2022 | $95K | $20K | $49K | $126K | $203K | $219K | $143K |
| 2019 | $83K | $17K | $76K | $127K | $169K | $208K | $105K |
| 2016 | $81K | $17K | $50K | $111K | $162K | $170K | $162K |
| 2013 | $82K | $17K | $60K | $121K | $144K | $207K | $97K |
| 2010 | $66K | $16K | $47K | $90K | $150K | $150K | $81K |
| 2007 | $71K | $15K | $58K | $99K | $157K | $121K | $55K |
| 2004 | $61K | $19K | $48K | $96K | $143K | $138K | $52K |
| 2001 | $54K | $13K | $53K | $88K | $101K | $110K | $88K |
| 1998 | $48K | $14K | $41K | $70K | $93K | $76K | $60K |
Show all 13 rowsShow fewer
| 1995 | $36K | $13K | $31K | $59K | $68K | $61K | $50K |
| 1992 | $32K | $10K | $21K | $64K | $68K | $45K | $64K |
| 1989 | $28K | $10K | $24K | $42K | $60K | $39K | $40K |
Average, median, and the families with none
The Fed reports retirement balances for the families that have an account: the share that has one, then the median and mean balance among them. That is why its “median retirement savings” for families under 35 is $21,000 even though more than half of young families have no such account at all.
The average (mean) adds up every balance and divides by the number of families with an account, so a few very large accounts pull it far above what most savers have. The median is the middle saver. Both are the Fed’s own figures, from its historic tables in 2025 dollars, which agree with its October 2026 Bulletin.
Our percentile table ranks every family the visitor’s age, counting the ones with no account at $0, from the Fed’s public data file. Retirement accounts here are IRAs, Keoghs and account-type workplace plans such as 401(k)s, 403(b)s and the federal Thrift Savings Plan.
- 54.9% of US families had a retirement account in 2025, up from 54.3% in 2022. Among them the median balance rose 11% after inflation, to $106,000, and the mean rose 23%, to $451,100. Source: Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances.
- Counting traditional pensions as well as IRAs and 401(k)-type plans, 65.1% of families headed by someone 64 or younger took part in some retirement plan in 2025. Source: Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances.
Sources
- Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances
- Survey of Consumer Finances 2025, summary extract public data
- SCF historic tables based on public data, in 2025 dollars
- SCF historic tables based on internal data, in 2025 dollars
- Survey of Consumer Finances 2025 codebook
- Survey of Consumer Finances: frequently asked questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average retirement savings by age?
Among families with a retirement account in 2025, the mean balance was under 35: $48,400; 35–44: $182,400; 45–54: $415,800; 55–64: $670,200; 65–74: $767,600; 75 and over: $798,700. For all families with an account it was $451,100. These are the Federal Reserve’s figures from the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, in 2025 dollars.
What is the median retirement savings by age?
Among families with an account: under 35: $21,000; 35–44: $61,200; 45–54: $133,000; 55–64: $239,000; 65–74: $257,000; 75 and over: $257,000. Counting families with no account as $0, the median for all families was $5,000 and was $0 under 35 and at 65 and over, because more than half of those families have none (our calculation from the public data).
How many Americans have no retirement savings?
45.1% of US families had no IRA, 401(k) or similar account in 2025, by the Fed’s figures. The share is highest for families 75 and over (55.4%) and under 35 (51.2%). Some of these families have a traditional pension or other savings instead, which these figures don’t count.
Does this include pensions and Social Security?
No. It counts accounts with a balance you own: IRAs, Keoghs, and 401(k), 403(b), thrift and similar workplace plans, including ones left with past employers. Social Security and traditional pensions that pay a set monthly income have no account balance, so the survey leaves them out, as it does in net worth.