The new K-shaped economy splits the rich from the ultra-rich: The top 0.1% averages more than $200 million—and is pulling away from the rest of the 1%

Photo of person counting money (Credit: YURI CORTEZ–AFP/Getty Images)

Rich Americans are getting richer, but not all equally. The K-shaped split that let high earners pull away from low earners now cuts through the top 1% too, with the ultra-rich far ahead of the rest.

The average household in the top 0.1% is now worth about $204 million, or 7.7 times as much as one in the rest of the top 1%, according to a Fortune analysis of Federal Reserve data. That ratio is the highest in the Fed’s quarterly series going back to 1989, up from 6.2 times at the end of 2019. Currently, the Fed counts 136,779 households in the top 0.1%