The top share rises again
US wealth became more concentrated during the first half of 2026, according to an economist's analysis published by The Conversation, with the richest 1% increasing their share from 31.7% to 32.5% between the first and second quarters. The analysis says that shift represented more than $8.5 trillion and extended a rise from 30.9% at the end of 2024 and 27.4% in 1999.
The middle 40% of households — those between the bottom half and top 10% — held 28.8% of wealth, down from 30.2% at the end of 2024 and 32.9% in 1999, the article reports from federal data. The comparison shows that a group many times larger than the top 1% collectively owns a smaller share.
Concentration is also increasing within the richest tier. The top 0.1% held 15% of all wealth and captured about two-thirds of the gains recorded by the top 1% between the first and second quarters of 2026, according to the analysis. Its author links that divergence partly to portfolios weighted toward corporate and business ownership, including stocks whose values have risen alongside expectations around technology and artificial intelligence.
Different households face different costs
The article argues that the distribution of assets determines how policy and price changes affect households. For the middle class, homes and retirement savings account for nearly two-thirds of wealth, while corporate and business holdings represent about 15%. At the very top, business ownership forms a much larger share, giving those households greater exposure to corporate profits and stock-market gains.
Recent costs can pull in the other direction for lower- and middle-income consumers. The analysis points to higher energy prices, reduced federal healthcare support and tariffs on imported goods. It cites New York Federal Reserve research estimating that prices for affected consumer items would have fallen about 1% without tariffs but instead rose 2.9%. Because common goods consume more of a modest household's budget, the effect is not evenly distributed.
The findings arrive as affordability and economic inequality shape debate ahead of the 2026 US midterm elections. A Pew Research survey cited in the analysis found roughly six in ten Americans believed inequality was excessive, including four in ten Republicans.
The figures do not establish that any single policy caused the entire change in wealth distribution. They do, however, place recent movement within a pattern dating back decades and show how gains, asset ownership and household expenses can reinforce that pattern.
Future quarterly data will show whether the rapid first-half shift persists, reverses or accelerates. In the meantime, the analysis emphasizes that headline economic growth and rising asset values can coexist with sharply different outcomes depending on which assets households own and which recurring costs consume their income.
