The dwindling wealth of the American family: By the numbers

A boy waves a flag during the annual Memorial Day Parade in New Canaan, Conn., one of the wealthiest communities in the U.S.: According to a new report, the median family income dropped 8 per

(Image credit: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis)

last updated 11 January 2015

The median American family — the exact middle between the wealthiest and the poorest — had the same amount of money in 2010 as it did in 1992, according to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finance, an extensive and detailed look at American wealth undertaken every three years. While the latest data is 18 months old, it underscores the astonishing economic devastation wreaked by the Great Recession, which, beginning in 2007, swept away a chunk of the wealth accumulated since the early 1990s. (The Fed defines "wealth" as income plus assets — like homes, cars, and stocks — minus debts.) Here, a numerical look at the average family's struggles:

$126,400