Who owns America's private businesses?

In the second quarter of 2026, the wealthiest 1% of U.S. households held 53.0% of the value of private businesses, the next 9% held 31.8%, the next 40% held 14.2% and the bottom 50% held 1.0%. These are businesses not traded on a stock exchange, such as family firms, partnerships and property rented out to others, counted at the owners' share of their value. Groups are ranked by net worth: what households own minus what they owe. The Fed estimates each quarter by combining its Financial Accounts with its Survey of Consumer Finances, taken every three years, so the newest quarters are estimates that get revised.

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Key facts

Measure: Share of private business wealth held by households, %. Written from the data below.

  • Top 1% has the highest figure, 53%.
  • Bottom 50% has the lowest figure, 1%.
  • The highest is 53 times the lowest.

Source and date

Source
Federal Reserve Board, Distributional Financial Accounts
License
Public domain (Federal Reserve Board; cite the Board as the source)
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “Who owns America's private businesses?” Chart. Data: Federal Reserve Board, Distributional Financial Accounts, https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/ (data as of June 30, 2026). https://chart.ly/charts/who-owns-private-businesses (accessed October 17, 2026).

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The data

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly. Developers can also get them as JSON (how).

Households, by wealth Share of private business wealth held by households, %
Top 1% 53
Next 9% 31.8
Next 40% 14.2
Bottom 50% 1

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