The Federal Reserve Board sponsors the SCF with the U.S. Treasury. NORC at the University of Chicago conducts the interviews. Consumer Magazine sponsors this independent guide; Consumer.info and NDS explain the evidence.
The survey team collects the facts. We help tell the story.
Frequently asked questions
Who conducts the SCF interviews?
NORC at the University of Chicago conducts the interviews for the Federal Reserve Board.
Is Consumer Magazine the official survey sponsor?
Consumer Magazine sponsors this independent guide. The official SCF is sponsored by the Federal Reserve Board with the U.S. Treasury.
Can I complete the official survey on this website?
No. Our forms are for sharing, partnerships, advertising, and other website requests. Official participants should use the contact information supplied by NORC.
The Long Answer · Go deeper
The Survey of Consumer Finances is a statistical research program sponsored by the Federal Reserve Board in cooperation with the U.S. Treasury. NORC at the University of Chicago conducts interviews. Separating these roles matters: the agency sponsoring the research, the organization collecting responses, and a publisher explaining results have different responsibilities.
Consumer Magazine sponsors this independent educational edition. Consumer.info and National Data System organize selected published findings and explain their limits. Our sponsors and directory participants do not select the official sample, receive private interview responses, or control Federal Reserve estimates. A sponsorship on this website is not an endorsement by the Federal Reserve or NORC.
The SCF brings assets, debt, income, pensions, and financial behavior into one picture. The 2025 cycle also adds questions about spending and support networks.
Look at what comes in, what is owned, and what is owed.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between income and net worth?
Income is money received over time. Net worth is the value of assets minus debts at one point in time.
Does home equity count as wealth?
Yes. Home value minus home-secured debt contributes to wealth. Equity is different from cash available in a bank account.
Can I add the published asset medians together?
No. Different medians can describe different families and different owner groups. Their sum is not the median of total assets or net worth.
The Long Answer · Go deeper
The SCF measures several dimensions of family finances together: assets, liabilities, income, retirement arrangements, and financial behavior. Income is a flow over a period; wealth is a stock measured at a point in time. Net worth subtracts liabilities from assets. A rise in one measure does not necessarily imply improvement in the others.
Interpretation also depends on the population behind an estimate. A median for homeowners excludes families without a home, while a median for all families covers a broader population. Asset-specific medians cannot simply be added to reconstruct median family net worth: the family in the middle of one distribution need not be the family in the middle of another. Read the unit, reference period, and group before comparing two figures.
The modern series has run every three years since 1989. The Federal Reserve published the 2025 survey results on October 9, 2026. Our publication edition is dated October 18, 2026.
A survey year and a publication year can be different.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the 2026 survey or the 2025 survey?
It is our 2026 guide to the official 2025 survey. The results were published on October 9, 2026.
Which year does the $82,200 income figure describe?
The 2025 survey’s median family income refers to 2024 income, expressed in 2025 dollars.
How often is the SCF conducted?
The modern survey series has been conducted every three years since 1989.
The Long Answer · Go deeper
This 2026 publication explains the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, released by the Federal Reserve on October 9, 2026. The survey cycle, the year a question refers to, and the publication date are distinct. For example, income in the 2025 survey refers to calendar year 2024; income in the 2022 survey refers to 2021.
Dollar comparisons in our selected table use constant 2025 dollars so inflation does not masquerade as a change in purchasing power. The modern SCF series has run every three years since 1989. These are periodic estimates, not a live household dashboard. They do not describe a family’s finances on the day a reader opens this website.
The SCF is designed to represent U.S. families. It includes a broad geographic sample and a second sample that helps capture wealth concentrated among fewer families.
National estimates do not tell you the answer for every ZIP Code.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get an SCF wealth estimate for my ZIP Code here?
No. Our published figures are national. We do not turn them into ZIP Code or neighborhood estimates.
Does the survey cover only wealthy families?
No. The design represents families across financial circumstances and includes an additional sample to measure concentrated wealth more effectively.
Does a national median tell me what my family should have?
No. A median describes the middle of a distribution. It is not a personal target or a score for your household.
The Long Answer · Go deeper
The SCF is designed to describe U.S. families nationally. Its sampling strategy includes a geographically broad sample and a supplemental sample that helps measure wealth concentrated among a relatively small number of families. Survey weights connect the selected observations to the target population; raw interview counts alone do not produce national estimates.
National representativeness does not make every local subgroup representative. Applying a national median to a ZIP Code, neighborhood, or individual household creates an estimate the survey was not designed to support. Professional directory categories on this site help readers identify relevant kinds of assistance; they are not local financial rankings or evidence about a particular provider’s clients.
The 2025 SCF completed 4,367 family interviews. The public file covers 4,360 families, with five completed versions for each family to handle missing answers. Survey weights help turn the sample into national estimates.
Five versions of a family do not mean five different families.
Frequently asked questions
Why does one family appear five times in the public file?
The SCF uses five completed versions, called implicates, to handle missing answers and preserve information about uncertainty.
How many families are in the 2025 public data?
The public file covers 4,360 families, represented by 21,800 records. The completed interview count was 4,367 before public-file disclosure protection.
Can I take a simple average of all the rows?
That is not a substitute for the required survey analysis. Follow the Federal Reserve’s instructions for weights, all five implicates, and variance estimation.
The Long Answer · Go deeper
The 2025 SCF completed 4,367 family interviews. The public file contains 4,360 families after disclosure protection, represented by 21,800 records. The five records per family are implicates: alternative completed versions used to account for missing answers. They are not five independent respondents, and their differences help represent uncertainty about missing information.
Valid analysis must use the survey weights and the recommended procedures for combining implicates and estimating sampling uncertainty. Treating every row as an independent, equally weighted family can distort totals, averages, and standard errors. The small download on this site transcribes selected published aggregates; it does not perform a new microdata analysis or supply confidence intervals.
Two families can earn the same amount but have very different savings and debt. The SCF helps researchers and policymakers study resources, financial pressure, and differences across groups.
A paycheck is one clue. A balance sheet adds the rest.
Frequently asked questions
Why can wealth rise while bills still feel difficult?
An asset can gain value without raising income or cash savings. Monthly payments and available cash still matter.
Does the survey prove why debt pressure changed?
The headline comparison describes a change. By itself it does not prove what caused that change for a family or the country.
How can a wealth professional use these findings?
They can use the survey to start questions about assets, debt, income, and liquidity, then assess the family’s own circumstances. National medians are not a personal financial plan.
The Long Answer · Go deeper
The SCF links income, assets, debt, and payment obligations in a way that helps explain financial resilience and vulnerability. Two households with similar earnings may have different liquid reserves, housing equity, retirement assets, or debt commitments. Looking only at income or total wealth can miss these differences in capacity to absorb a financial shock.
Published comparisons are descriptive. A change between survey cycles does not by itself identify a cause, and a national association does not establish what action will benefit a particular household. Financial educators and professionals can use the evidence to frame better questions about liquidity, borrowing, and long-term resources. The simulator illustrates these distinctions with hypothetical values; it is not a forecast or a recommendation for a transaction.
The official survey year is 2025. The Federal Reserve released the results on October 9, 2026. Consumer Magazine's guide is the 2026 edition.
For income, the survey asks about the prior calendar year. That means the 2025 survey's income measure is for 2024.
A careful count
4,367 completed family interviews.
The public file covers 4,360 families after disclosure protection. Each has five versions to handle missing answers. That makes 21,800 public records, not 21,800 families.
Source: Federal Reserve 2025 SCF data page and report, appendices A and B.
Why the survey takes care.
A few families hold a large share of wealth. A simple sample may miss that part of the picture. The SCF combines two kinds of samples and uses weights to help represent the country.
When answers are missing, researchers do not pretend the gaps are certain. They use several completed versions of the data and special tools to measure uncertainty.
What this survey cannot promise.
A national result does not measure your own home, family, or ZIP Code. It is not a wealth score for a neighborhood. It also does not prove what caused a change.
Read the source notes for more detail, including differences between the supplied presentation and the official report.
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