Report

The Demographics of Wealth 2015, Essay No. 1: Race, Ethnicity and Wealth

Abstract: This first essay in the "Demographics of Wealth" series examines the connection between race or ethnicity and wealth accumulation over the past quarter-century. As with subsequent essays, this one is the result of an analysis of data collected between 1989 and 2013 through the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances. More than 40,000 heads of households were interviewed over those years.

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Part of Series: Community Development Publications and Reports

Publication Date: 2015-02

Pages: 28 pages

Note: The Demographics of Wealth is a series of essays written by the staff of the Center for Household Financial Stability (2013-2021). The essays are based on the staff’s analysis of over a quarter-century’s worth of data collected by the Federal Reserve through its Survey of Consumer Finances. The results of the survey provide the most comprehensive picture of American families’ balance sheets and financial behavior over time. The series confirms the conventional wisdom that more education is associated with more income and wealth. But the essays also show that inherited demographic characteristics—your race or ethnicity, your age and birth year, and even your parents’ level of education—profoundly shape the economic and financial opportunities you have and the outcomes you achieve.