The Highest-Earning Age Group in America Is Now the Over-65s

US households headed by someone aged 65 or older took in $3.87 trillion in 2025, more than any other age group, including the $3.70 trillion earned by households in the peak career years of 35 to 44.

The series, compiled by Yardeni Research, labels its axis precisely: mean household income multiplied by the number of households. It measures the combined buying power of an age group, not the income of a typical family within it. Households aged 45 to 54 came to $3.53 trillion, those aged 55 to 64 to $3.27 trillion, and those aged 25 to 34 to $2.56 trillion.

The reordering comes from household counts rather than paycheques. There are now 41.9 million US households headed by someone over 65, or 30.6% of all households, against roughly a fifth at the turn of the century. Over the same stretch, the share of the population aged 65 and over rose from 12.4% in 2004 to 18% in 2024, and by 2030 every member of the baby boom will have passed 65. No individual retiree out-earns a prime-age household. Sheer numbers pushed the total past them.

The lower panel of the same data shows baby boomer household net worth at $97.4 trillion in the second quarter of 2026, more than half of the $185.6 trillion held by all US households.

For anyone selling to consumers, the shift has a concrete meaning. The fastest-growing pool of demand in the American market belongs to households funded by pensions, social security and withdrawals from investment accounts rather than by pay rises.

Source: Yardeni Research, the US Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve (Image: @neilsethinew)