The Most Shocking Line in the Fed’s New Wealth Report: Families Without a High School Diploma Saw Their Median Net Worth Fall 55%
The Fed's new wealth report buries a single line about one education group that tells a completely different story from the national headline, and the gap between that group's median and its mean reveals exactly who got left behind.
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The Federal Reserve’s report Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2022 to 2025, built on the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), contains a line that stands apart from everything else in its net worth table. Median net worth for families whose reference person has no high school diploma fell from $41,600 in the 2022 survey to $18,600 in the 2025 survey, a decline of 55%. The figures describe family balance sheets as of the 2025 interviews, stated in 2025 dollars. The Fed calls it this group’s “largest percent decline recorded in the modern SCF.”
What a 55% Median Drop Actually Measures
A median is the family in the exact middle of the group. Half of the families have more, and half have less. The 55% figure says that middle family’s net worth, meaning assets minus debts, got much smaller. It does not mean the group as a whole gave up 55% of its wealth.
The mean for the same families moved the other way. Mean net worth rose from $192,100 to $294,300, a gain of 53%. The report’s reading: “The declines in median net worth and increases in mean net worth imply that wealth inequality within these groups increased.” Put simply, the typical family without a diploma got poorer, while a smaller number of families at the top of the group got richer and pulled the average up.
Income shows the same pattern. Mean income for families with no high school diploma rose 13%, from $46,200 to $52,300, while median income edged up 3%. Income in the SCF covers the calendar year before the survey, so the 2025 survey’s income data reflects 2024.
Families are sorted by the education of the reference person. The 2025 survey interviewed 4,367 families, and every dollar figure is adjusted to 2025 dollars using the current-methods CPI.
| Education Group | Median 2022 ($K) | Median 2025 ($K) | Median Change | Mean Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No high school diploma | 41.6 | 18.6 | −55% | 53% |
| High school diploma | 116.9 | 106.7 | −9% | 4% |
| Some college | 149.3 | 181.0 | 21% | 12% |
| College degree | 508.5 | 505.4 | −1% | 3% |
High school graduates followed the same pattern, with a falling median and a rising mean, though the report notes the changes “were less extreme.” Families with some college posted the largest gains in both measures, and college graduates held roughly steady.
A Reversal That Erased the Pandemic-Era Gain
The Fed says the drop came after a period of progress, “undoing the gain these families saw between 2019 and 2022.” That earlier window was shaped by pandemic disruptions and the recovery that followed. The momentum faded for everyone in the latest survey: for all families, real median net worth rose just 2% to $215,900, growth the report describes as “much slower” than between 2019 and 2022. Families without a diploma went past slower growth into the steepest decline in the survey’s modern history.
Why Families With Diplomas Should Track This Number
Averages get the headlines, and averages can hide this kind of split. The same table shows median net worth for families in the bottom quarter of the wealth distribution falling 56%, while the median for the top income decile rose 31%. Renters’ median slipped 7%, and homeowners’ median rose 6%. Over the survey window, the Case-Shiller national index climbed from 292.671 in January 2023 to 331.564 in June 2025, so families who already owned assets were the ones who gained.
For investors, a thin balance sheet at the middle of a large group of households means less buffer when jobs or prices move against them. Unemployment stayed between 3.4% and 4.5% from September 2022 through September 2026, a healthy range that still left the typical family without a diploma worse off. The share of families who lacked a good idea of their next year’s income reached an SCF high of 37% in 2025, and consumer sentiment stood at 51.7 in August 2026. When the middle of a group has so little saved, consumer spending in that group depends almost entirely on paychecks.
The 55% figure is the clearest warning in the 2025 SCF. A 53% rise in the mean next to a 55% fall in the median means a few families pulled ahead while the typical household lost ground. Any reading of American household wealth that relies on averages will miss what happened to these families between 2022 and 2025.
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Jake has been been working in financial media for almost 15 years. He focuses on all things personal finance for 24/7 Wall St. with high hopes to educate and entertain. Most recently, Jake spent 12 years working various roles at The Motley Fool. He started copy editing fool.com content, worked on premium and marketing campaigns, and helped launch The Ascent, a personal finance brand.
His work has been featured on platforms like MSN, Yahoo Finance, USA Today, and more. He's written about credit cards, social security, ETFs, savings accounts, and just about anything else you can imagine when thinking about money. Jake love to cook, play golf, and tell people he's never had a cavity. (It's true!)
