The average Black family had less than 15 percent of the wealth of white families.
The median wealth of white families was $188,200, compared with only $24,100 for Black families.
“In addition to direct transfers or gifts, families can make investments in their children that indirectly increase their wealth,” according to a Fed paper. “Families can invest in their children’s educational success by paying for college or private schools, which can in turn increase their children’s ability to accumulate wealth.”
The median Black family in the under 35 age group had only $600 in wealth, compared with $25,400 among young white families.
The stock market has recovered after panicked sell-offs and more than half of white families have equities, while only 34 percent of Black families and 24 percent of Hispanic families own stock.
Because nonwhite people were already starting from such a low level of wealth, the racial wealth gap hardly improved.
For all racial groupings, “the mean is substantially higher than the median, reflecting the concentration of wealth at the top of the wealth distribution for each group,” Fed economists say.
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