While millions of Americans struggled, American billionaires quietly grew even richer
Billionaires grew their wealth by an incredible 22% in the last year as regular Americans struggled.
Feb. 28 2026, Published 6:09 a.m. ET
The wealth gap in America has been talked about several times, but many people might not know how it keeps getting bigger. While millions of Americans live from paycheck to paycheck and struggle to make ends meet, the top 1% keep accumulating excessive wealth. Recently, it was reported that American billionaires added a whopping $1.5 trillion to their collective wealth in 2025.
A report in Moneywise states that US billionaires saw their collective wealth increase from bout $6.7 trillion to $8.2 trillion, marking a 22% jump in just one year. Even the number of billionaires grew by 15%, from 814 to 935. On the other hand, the vast majority of Americans are struggling, as 24% of American households are living paycheck to paycheck.
The rate of savings for Americans is also quite low at just 3.6%. For some, things have gotten so bad that they’re skipping essentials just to save money. A good example of this is that 24% of Americans skipped medication and treatments just because they could not afford them at that point in time. The report also states that 34% of those surveyed reported skipping meals in the past year.
The distribution of wealth also paints a grim image for most of the people in the country. The top 1% control 31.7% of all the country’s wealth, the biggest share recorded since the Fed started tracking this data in 1989. This means that they have $55 trillion in assets, which is around the same as the asset value of the bottom 90% of Americans. People are not happy about this, and many have demanded that the government levy high taxes on the rich.
Some states have implemented tax regimes specifically targeting the wealthy. California perhaps leads the way in that it has levied a one-time 5% wealth tax on individuals with assets over $1 billion. What has resulted is that people who are worth billions are leaving the state rather than giving 5% of their wealth. It's not at all surprising that billionaires are vilified across the country.
Prominent people who have left the state due to the wealth tax include Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Spielberg’s spokesperson, however, claims that he is making the move to be closer to his family. “Steven’s move to the East Coast is both long-planned and driven purely by his and Kate Capshaw’s desire to be closer to their New York-based children and grandchildren," the spokesperson said.
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