"This week, a new economic report confirmed what most Americans already believe to be true: over the past three decades, the middle class has lost ground while the wealthiest few have become even wealthier.  In fact, the average income for the top one percent of Americans has risen almost seven times faster than the income of the average middle class family. " President Obama, October 29, 2011.

"Top wealth shares were very high at the beginning of the period [1916-2000] but have been hit sharply by the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II shocks. Those shocks have had permanent effects. Following a decline in the 1970s, top wealth shares recovered in the early 1980s, but they are still much lower in 2000 than in the early decades of the century." NBER study: Top Wealth Shares in the United States, 1916-2000: Evidence from Estate Tax Returns, by Wojciech Kopczuk and Emmanuel Saez, 2004.

The Top 1% Wealth Share in the United States, 1916-2000

Source:  NBER study: Top Wealth Shares in the United States, 1916-2000: Evidence from Estate Tax Returns, by Wojciech Kopczuk and Emmanuel Saez

Hoven's Index for November 8, 2011

Share of the wealth held by the top 1%, selected years:

In 1916: 38.12%

In 1930: 40.29%

In 1940: 25.27%

In 1960: 25.25%

In 1969: 22.86%

In 1985: 22.35%

In 1990: 20.86%

In 2000: 20.79%

Source:  NBER study: Top Wealth Shares in the United States, 1916-2000: Evidence from Estate Tax Returns, by Wojciech Kopczuk and Emmanuel Saez

Graph of the Day Archive.