The already significant gap between the wealth of Black and non-Black households in the U.S. has gotten worse in recent years, according to newly released data. Even as other groups in the U.S. have advanced financially, Black households have seen much of their already-lagging wealth disappear over a three-year span.
Declining value of Black assets contributes to widening racial wealth gap
Newly released data from the Federal Reserve Board shows a 25% drop in median Black household wealth from 2022 to 2025, adjusted for inflation. This analysis of the Fed’s Survey of Consumer Finances comes from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, which reported that the median Black household’s net worth fell from $49,100 in 2022 to $36,800 in 2025. That left Black households’ median wealth $179,100 below the national median in 2025, up from a $162,000 gap in 2022. The national median rose 2% to $215,900 over the same period, according to the Fed, and white, Hispanic and Asian American households all saw increases in wealth.
Asian Americans have the highest median household wealth at $677,600, about double that of white Americans at $332,100. Hispanic Americans are also well below the national median but above Black Americans, with a median household wealth of $79,600 in 2025. CEPR’s analysis suggests the drop in Black wealth is due in part to a lower share of Black households owning nonfinancial assets, which fell from 81% in 2022 to 78.4% in 2025, and to declines in the value of Black homes, vehicles and retirement accounts.
Trump administration policies unlikely to help reverse Black wealth declines
The survey compares 2022 and 2025, a span that includes the end of the Biden administration and the first year of Trump’s second term. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities chief economist Gbenga Ajilore told The Grio that “what determines wealth is housing, and that’s where Black people have their wealth.” By contrast, Ajilore said, “Then you look at other groups who have higher wealth; they have more asset diversification. So you think about the stock market. Over the last couple of years, the stock market has really peaked, and so all these other groups are benefiting from that stock market increase, and Black households aren’t.”
American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal research organization, blamed the Trump administration for the decline. “Black families have spent generations building wealth in a country that historically has made it harder for them at every turn, and now they’re watching a quarter of it disappear while Donald Trump raises prices on everything and guts Medicaid and SNAP to bankroll tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans,” spokesperson Brandon Weathersby said.
While the racial wealth gap grows, the Trump administration has actively opposed policies and programs that focus on assisting or increasing opportunities for Black Americans, claiming that they discriminate against white and other non-Black people. Combined with the Supreme Court’s ruling to ban affirmative action in college admissions, the Trump administration’s anti-diversity agenda has attacked diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and policies and targeted programs that benefit Black and other marginalized communities in higher education as well as employment and agriculture. Meanwhile, the administration has pursued cases alleging discrimination against white people. As the CEPR report says, “Black Americans are not likely to receive any help from the Trump administration in addressing this decline in wealth. They will have to turn elsewhere, to state and local governments and nonprofit organizations.”
Black wealth has dropped even as other groups’ wealth has risen, widening a gap that was already large.