Updated August 4, 2026. Quick answer: the median American family aged 55–64 holds $16,600 in retirement accounts — against a mean of $306,404. The gap is not a rounding difference: 43% of families in that cohort hold nothing at all, and figures that exclude them, or report the average instead of the middle, describe a household most people are not. Every number here is computed by Clear Money Guide from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances (2022 wave).
Headline statistics
$16,600 — median retirement-account balance, age 55–64.
The mean for the same cohort is $306,404, about 18× larger. Medians here are across all families in the cohort, including those holding nothing — which is the population most readers belong to.
$5,500 — median balance at 65–74, the first cohort mostly retired.
Against a mean of $310,651. Balances are drawn down and the zero-holding share rises, so the median falls even as the mean stays high.
$0 — the median under 35.
Half of families under 35 hold nothing, so the median is zero by construction. The 90th percentile is $80,000: the distribution is not a curve around a typical saver, it is a large group at nothing and a long tail.
$915,000 at the 90th percentile, age 55–64 — 55× the median.
The top decile is what pulls every published mean upward. Citing the mean without the median describes that decile.
$0 — median at 75 and over, with 58.2% holding nothing.
The highest zero-holding share of any cohort. Accounts have been spent down, annuitised, or were never there.
The full table
| Age of head | Median | Mean | 75th pct | 90th pct | Holding nothing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 35 | $0 | $24,383 | $18,398 | $80,000 | 50.4% |
| 35–44 | $9,400 | $87,071 | $64,860 | $279,200 | 38.5% |
| 45–54 | $20,280 | $194,700 | $183,200 | $545,400 | 37.8% |
| 55–64 | $16,600 | $306,404 | $236,400 | $915,000 | 43.0% |
| 65–74 | $5,500 | $310,651 | $204,200 | $805,500 | 49.0% |
| 75 and over | $0 | $194,129 | $94,700 | $459,000 | 58.2% |
All figures 2022 dollars, families by age of head, variable RETQLIQ (quasi-liquid retirement assets — IRAs, thrift and pension accounts). Percentiles and shares computed across all families in the cohort, including those with zero.
How we know the computation is right
Checked against the Federal Reserve’s own published table for the same wave:
- Share of families holding a retirement account: exact match — 54.3% against the Bulletin’s 54.3%.
- Conditional mean: 0.027% difference — $334,090 against $334,000.
- Conditional median: 0.345% difference, and the reason is definitional rather than an error — two defensible weighted-median conventions bracket the published figure, and both are reported in the dataset rather than one being chosen silently.
The method was pre-registered before any estimate was computed, and the composition of the RETQLIQ variable was verified arithmetically rather than assumed. The SCF is a multiply-imputed survey; the per-implicate spread of each median is published alongside it so a reader can see the imputation uncertainty instead of being handed a single confident-looking number.
Cite this data
Free to cite with attribution and a link. Suggested citation: “Retirement Savings Statistics,” Clear Money Guide, 2026, clearmoneyguide.com/retirement-savings-statistics/. Every statistic above has its own anchor — link the number you are citing, not just the page. The dataset, the computation script and the pre-registration are prepared for open archival deposit under CC BY 4.0; the archival DOI is pending and this page will carry it once issued. We would rather say that than imply a permanent identifier we do not yet have.
What this page does not tell you
These are retirement-account balances only. They exclude home equity, taxable brokerage accounts, business interests and the present value of Social Security or a defined benefit pension — which for many households in the older cohorts is the largest asset they have. A low median here is not the same as a household with nothing. The wave is 2022, the most recent SCF; the Federal Reserve runs it every three years.
Related
What households at these ages actually spend: retirement spending statistics, computed from BLS microdata. The rest of the owned-data library: the statistics index, advisor statistics and elder fraud statistics.
Computed by Clear Money Guide from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Survey of Consumer Finances 2022 Summary Extract Public Data. Last verified 4 August 2026. General information, not financial advice. We sell nothing on this page and earn nothing from it.
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