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American capitalism is owned by more than billionaire founders and investors: households also participate through homes, stock holdings, retirement accounts and privately held businesses. But participation is not the same as equal ownership. Federal Reserve data show that many families hold some of these assets while access and the dollar value held vary substantially by income.
What does it mean for households to own part of the economy?
Ownership takes several forms. A family may own a home, hold publicly traded stock directly or through a retirement account, or run a privately held business. These assets differ in how easily they can be sold, the risks they carry and whether they produce income. A home is not the same kind of asset as a diversified stock portfolio, and a small business can bring both an ownership stake and uncertain earnings.
It also matters which measure is being discussed. The share of families that own an asset describes participation; it does not reveal how much each family owns or how wealth is distributed overall. Income is a flow over time, while net worth is a balance-sheet measure of assets minus liabilities.
How common is private business ownership?
The Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) found that 20 percent of families owned a privately held business, the highest share in the modern survey record. In this survey, “family” refers to the SCF’s survey unit, not an individual person. The business-owner category can include a respondent or partner who is self-employed, so the figure is broader than ownership of a conventional firm with employees. (Federal Reserve Board, 2023)
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Many owners operate very small businesses
Among families classified as business owners in the 2022 SCF, 52 percent had nonemployer firms and 78 percent had businesses with fewer than five employees. Nonemployer businesses have no employees apart from the owner or owners. These figures show why “business ownership” should not be read as synonymous with owning a large company.
Ownership and wealth are associated, not proven causes
The Fed report found that mean nonbusiness net worth—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. This is a descriptive comparison between groups, not evidence that starting a business caused the difference. The report also notes that smaller business owners were less certain about their earnings, an important counterpoint to treating ownership as a guarantee of financial security.
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Do ordinary families own stocks?
Yes, but stock ownership is uneven across income groups. In 2022, 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. These are participation rates: they do not show equal dollar amounts, and higher-income families typically held more. The SCF figures describe its 2022 survey wave, not a 2026 snapshot. (Federal Reserve Board, 2023)
Stock exposure can be direct, through shares held in an account, or indirect, through investments inside retirement plans. Just over two-thirds of working-age families participated in retirement plans in 2022, with participation varying across income groups. Retirement accounts are one route for households to hold financial assets, but participation alone says nothing about account balances or how secure a family’s retirement will be.
Why ownership does not mean wealth is broadly or equally shared
A family can own some stock or a small business and still have far less wealth than a family with larger financial holdings, valuable property or a major company stake. Counting owners answers who participates; it does not tell us who holds most of the value. The SCF’s income-group comparisons make that distinction visible: stock participation was much more common among higher-income families, and participation rates do not measure the size of their investments.
Assets also differ in liquidity and risk. Public stocks can generally be sold through an investment account, subject to market conditions. A home is less readily converted to cash, while a privately held business may depend on its owner’s work and can produce variable earnings. These forms of household participation broaden the picture of ownership without making their benefits or risks equivalent.
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How to read newer wealth-distribution data
The Federal Reserve’s Distributional Financial Accounts (DFAs) provide quarterly estimates of household balance sheets by wealth, income, age, education and race. They combine aggregate Financial Accounts data with distribution patterns from the triennial SCF, then interpolate and forecast 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 each quarter. (Federal Reserve Board, Distributional Financial Accounts Overview)
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The Census Bureau released the 2025 Survey of Income and Program Participation in July 2026. Its release includes wealth and asset-ownership tables and a brief examining household wealth in 2024. Those materials provide a more recent household-wealth data source, but the release announcement alone does not establish a specific ownership percentage. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2026 SIPP release)
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What the evidence supports
Households participate in American capitalism in multiple ways: through housing, stocks, retirement savings and privately held businesses. Federal Reserve survey figures establish that business ownership and stockholding are not limited to billionaires. They do not show that ownership is equal, that most household wealth is broadly distributed, or that running a business reliably makes a family wealthier. Participation is real; its scale, security and value differ sharply.
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