The financial meltdown of 2008 and a weak economy has slowed the historic growth rate of millionaires. Nonetheless, the total number of households in the U.S. with a net worth, excluding the value of a principal residence, is fast approaching 10 million.
According to the latest number from Spectrem Group, the number of millionaires has rebounded dramatically since 2008 when a crash in both stocks and bonds rapidly wiped out trillions of dollars in wealth.
As of 2011, here’s how the number look:
Households with a total net worth of over $25 million – 107,000.
Households with a total net worth of over $5 million – 1.1 million.
Households with a total net worth of over $1 million – 8.6 million.
Households with a total net worth of over $500,000 – 13,800,000
Households with a total net worth of over $100,000 – 36,700,000
The combined total of all households with a net worth of over $100,000 totals 60,307,000. Considering that the total number of households in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau, is 114,761,000, a total of 52.5% of all households are fairly comfortable.
The wealth statistics above do not include the age groups, so many of the households in the lower net worth categories will probably continue to grow their wealth and wind up with the “magic” six figure net worth at some point. In addition, the net wealth numbers cited above do not include the value of a household’s primary residence which may be mortgage free, thus greatly increasing the total net worth of many people.
What are the odds that someone you know is a member of a millionaire household? There is a total of 9,807,000 households worth over $1 million. There is an average of 2.7 members per household in the U.S. Therefore, the total number of people belonging to millionaire households totals 26.5 million. The population of the U.S. is about 314 million. Thus, on average 8.5% of all people belong to a household worth over $1 million, or almost 1 out of every 10 people you know or come into contact with.
When the wealth numbers are released for 2012, it is likely that the number of millionaires will zoom right past 10 million since stocks and bonds increased dramatically in value during 2012. A large percentage of all stocks and bonds are owned by households that are already wealthy, thus rising markets quickly compound the growth of net worth for such families.
If you are young and want to get a head start on reaching the magic 6 figure net worth category, consider the occupations of those comprising the highest percentage of the millionaire group. Educators, reflecting high pay and immunity to job layoffs, account for 12% of all millionaires – something to think about the next time your local taxes get raised to increase the local education budget “to help the kids.”
Other careers with a high percentage of millionaires are business owners at 6% and corporate executives at 7%. It is somewhat ironic that small business owners, who create so many of the new jobs in this country and thus contribute greatly to the overall wealth of many Americans, rate far below educators.
The ultra rich category of net worth over $5 million is populated by entrepreneurs and senior corporate executives.
Are your calculations accurate? You seem to be double-counting households with net worths of at least $100,000. Based on the data you listed above, it appears as though there are 36,700,000 households with net worths of at least $100,000, not 60,307,000.