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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesAmerican capitalism is owned not only by billionaires and corporate founders, but also—often indirectly or on a small scale—by households with homes, retirement accounts, stock investments and private businesses. That participation is real, but it is not evenly distributed: owning some assets does not mean holding the same value, security or influence as wealthier families.
What does it mean for a household to own part of the economy?
Ownership can take several forms. A household may own a home, hold publicly traded shares directly, invest through a retirement plan, or run a privately held business. These are different assets with different risks, liquidity and potential returns; counting participating families does not show how much of each asset they own.
- Housing: An owner-occupied home is a major household asset, but it is not the same as owning a diversified portfolio of companies. It is relatively illiquid and can also involve debt.
- Public stocks: Families may hold shares directly or through investment accounts. A retirement plan invested in stocks is an indirect route to market ownership.
- Private businesses: The category includes everything from solo self-employment to firms with employees. It does not refer only to large companies.
- Retirement plans: These can give workers an interest in financial assets through accounts, though participation and account balances vary.
The Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) measures families, using the survey’s family unit rather than counting every individual separately. Its 2019 and 2022 findings are survey-year results, not a snapshot of conditions in 2026.
How common is private business ownership?
In the 2022 SCF, 20 percent of families owned a privately held business, the highest share in the survey’s modern record, according to the Federal Reserve Board’s 2023 report on family finances. The definition includes a family with a business owner and can include a self-employed respondent or partner, so it is broader than ownership of a conventional employer firm.
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Among families classified as business owners, 52 percent had nonemployer firms and 78 percent had businesses with fewer than five employees. Nonemployer ownership includes people working for themselves without employees. These figures make clear why “business owner” should not automatically conjure a large company or a substantial staff.
Ownership was also uneven by income. In 2022, 14 percent of families in the bottom half of the usual income distribution owned a privately held business, compared with nearly half of families in the top decile, the Federal Reserve report says. A family’s income is a flow over time; its net worth is the value of assets minus debts at a point in time. Neither measure alone tells the full story of ownership.
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Do ordinary families own stocks?
Many do, but participation differed sharply by income in the 2022 SCF. Stock ownership included direct and indirect holdings, such as investments through retirement accounts. The Federal Reserve reported that 34 percent of families in the bottom half of the usual income distribution held stock, compared with 78 percent in the upper-middle group and 95 percent in the top decile.
| Usual income group | Families holding stock in 2022 |
|---|---|
| Bottom half | 34% |
| Upper-middle group | 78% |
| Top decile | 95% |
These are participation rates, not shares of the total stock market or dollar amounts owned. A family with a modest retirement account and a wealthy family with a large investment portfolio both count as participants, even though their stakes—and the financial cushion those stakes provide—may be very different.
How do retirement plans broaden financial ownership?
Just over two-thirds of working-age families participated in retirement plans in 2022, according to the Federal Reserve’s SCF report. Participation was uneven across income groups. Retirement accounts can connect households to stocks and other financial assets without requiring them to select and hold every investment directly, but an account’s existence does not establish its balance or investment mix.
This is one reason “owning stocks” does not always mean personally choosing shares in a brokerage account. A household may have market exposure through a workplace plan or another account. That indirect ownership still differs in scale from the holdings of families with more income and wealth.
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Does owning a business make a family wealthier?
The 2022 SCF found that business-owning families tended to have higher income and wealth, but the comparison does not establish that owning a business caused the difference. Families with more resources may be better positioned to start or acquire a business, and the survey is not a causal experiment.
One descriptive comparison illustrates the gap: mean nonbusiness net worth—that is, excluding the value of the business—was about $570,000 among families without a business and about $1.1 million among families with nonemployer businesses. These are averages, not typical-family figures, and the difference should not be read as the wealth produced by becoming self-employed.
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The same Federal Reserve report notes that smaller business owners were less certain about their earnings. A private business can be an asset and a source of income, but small operations can also involve variable earnings and financial risk. Business ownership is therefore not a guaranteed route to greater security.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What can newer wealth data tell us?
The Federal Reserve’s Distributional Financial Accounts (DFA) provide quarterly estimates of household balance sheets across groups, including by wealth, income, age, education and race. The accounts combine aggregate Financial Accounts data with distribution patterns based on the SCF, then estimate values between or beyond survey years. A quarterly DFA estimate is therefore a modeled distributional estimate, not the result of a new household survey conducted every quarter. The Federal Reserve explains the method and data in its Distributional Financial Accounts overview.
The Census Bureau released its 2025 Survey of Income and Program Participation in July 2026, with wealth and asset-ownership tables and a brief examining household wealth in 2024. The Census release page describes the release, but the figures discussed here do not draw on specific SIPP table results.
Quick Recap
How to read the ownership picture
- Separate participation from value. A percentage of families that own an asset says how widespread ownership is, not how much of the asset each group holds.
- Keep asset types distinct. A home, a retirement account and a small private business are all forms of household assets, but they differ in liquidity, diversification and risk.
- Notice who is counted. SCF figures refer to families, and its business-owner category can include self-employed people or partners.
- Keep dates attached to figures. The business and stock figures above describe the 2022 SCF wave; they should not be presented as current-year survey measurements.
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