Average Retirement Savings by Age: Median vs. Average, and the Benchmarks

Among American families that have a retirement account, the median balance is $106,000 and the average is $451,100, according to the Federal Reserve's 2025 survey, published in October 2026. The median is the number to compare yourself with, and the table below breaks both figures down by age.

Average retirement savings by age

These figures are from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances for 2025, published on October 9, 2026. The age-group rows come from the data behind the Fed's interactive chartbook, with averages rounded to the nearest $100. Balances are in 2025 dollars. The age is that of the person the survey calls the family's reference person.

Three things to know before you read your own row.

• The balances leave out families with nothing. The median and average are worked out only among families that own a retirement account. Count everyone and both numbers drop.
• It's a family total. A couple's accounts are added together, so a two-earner household is compared with single people in the same row.
• "Retirement account" means IRAs, Keogh accounts and account-type plans from work such as 401(k)s, 403(b)s and thrift savings accounts, from current or past jobs. A traditional pension that pays a monthly check isn't in these figures, and neither is Social Security or home equity.

How old are these numbers?

They're new. The Fed runs this survey every three years, and the 2025 results came out on October 9, 2026. We'll update the table when the next round is published.

Median vs. average, and why the average misleads

Line up every family from the smallest balance to the largest. The median is the family standing in the middle. Half have more and half have less.

The average (the Fed calls it the mean) adds up every balance and divides by the number of families. One huge account moves it a lot.

Picture ten neighbors. Nine have $50,000 each and one has $2 million. The average on that street is $245,000. Nobody on the street has anything close to $245,000. The median is $50,000, which describes nine of the ten households exactly.

Retirement savings in America look like that street. For ages 55 to 64 the average is $670,200 and the median is $239,000, so the average is almost three times the middle family's balance. Headlines quote the average because it's the bigger number. If you measure yourself against it, you're measuring yourself against the top of the pile.

So use the median. If you're 52 with $150,000 across your accounts, you're a little ahead of the middle family your age that has an account, and well ahead of the nearly four in ten families your age that have none.

How many families have a retirement account at all?

In 2025, 54.9% did. That's up a little from 54.3% in the 2022 survey, and it still leaves about 45% of families with no IRA and no 401(k)-type plan.

Ownership peaks in the later working years, at about 63% for ages 45 to 64. It's lower on either side of that: just under half of families under 35, and about 45% of families 75 and older.

Some of the families without an account have a pension, and Social Security is separate from all of this, so having no account doesn't mean having no retirement income. It does mean that the "average American" in most savings headlines is drawn from the better-prepared half.

What 401(k) providers report

You'll also see figures from the big 401(k) record-keepers. They come out more often than the Fed's, and they measure something narrower: one account at one company. If you have an old 401(k) somewhere else, or an IRA, or a spouse with a plan, none of that is counted.

• Vanguard reported an average balance of $167,970 and a median of $44,115 at the end of 2025 for participants in the plans it runs. Those figures are from its How America Saves 2026 research.
• Fidelity reported an average 401(k) balance of $155,800 and an average IRA balance of $144,523 as of June 30, 2026, in its second-quarter retirement analysis.

Look at Vanguard's pair of numbers. The average is nearly four times the median. Same pattern as the Fed data, from a completely different source.

How much should I have saved for retirement by 40, 50 and 60?

There's no official answer. What exists are rules of thumb from investment firms, written as multiples of your yearly pay. The two quoted most are Fidelity's and T. Rowe Price's.

Each firm built its numbers on assumptions, and they aren't the same ones.

Fidelity assumes you save 15% of your income every year from age 25, employer match included, retire at 67, and want to keep the same lifestyle. It says the target shifts with your retirement date: about 12 times your income if you stop at 65, about 8 times if you work to 70.

T. Rowe Price assumes you retire at 65 and spend a little less than you did while working. It gives ranges because Social Security replaces a bigger share of a modest paycheck than a large one, so higher earners need more saved relative to their income.

Put real pay on it. Say you're 50 and earn $80,000. Fidelity's line is $480,000. T. Rowe Price's range is $280,000 to $440,000. The median family aged 45 to 54 with a retirement account has $133,000.

That gap tells you what these benchmarks are. Fidelity's line describes where someone who saved 15% of every paycheck from age 25 would be. Start later, miss a few years or earn less early on, and you'll be under the line. We'd treat them as a direction to head in. A number built from your own spending is more useful than any multiple, and our guide to how much you need to retire shows how to work one out.

What to do if you're behind

Start with what you can change this year.

1. Collect the full employer match. If your plan matches part of what you put in and you're contributing less than the match covers, that's pay you're leaving behind.
2. Raise your rate one point at a time. Going from 6% to 7% of an $80,000 salary is about $15 a week before the tax savings. Set it to rise again with each raise.
3. Use the catch-up room from 50. For 2026 you can put an extra $8,000 into a 401(k) from age 50, or $11,250 in the years you turn 60 through 63. The full list is in our guide to 401(k) contribution limits for 2026.
4. Find the accounts you've lost track of. An old 401(k) from a job you left 15 years ago is still yours. Our guide to finding an old 401(k) shows where to look. The Labor Department's Retirement Savings Lost and Found database is one place to search.
5. Look at your retirement date. Each extra year of work is one more year of saving and one less year of spending. Social Security also pays more the longer you wait: for anyone born in 1943 or later, the benefit grows 8% for each year you delay past full retirement age, up to age 70, according to the Social Security Administration.
6. Work on the spending side. A paid-off mortgage or one fewer car lowers the amount your savings have to produce every year, which lowers the amount you need.

Saving more and working a little longer are the parts you control.

For a plan by decade, see retirement planning in your 40s or in your 50s. To see how far your current balance and savings rate could take you, try our retirement calculator.

Common questions

What is the average retirement savings by age?

In the Federal Reserve's 2025 survey, families with retirement accounts had average balances of $48,400 (under 35), $182,400 (35 to 44), $415,800 (45 to 54), $670,200 (55 to 64), $767,500 (65 to 74) and $798,700 (75 and older), in 2025 dollars. The medians are far lower, between $21,000 and $257,000.

How much should I have saved for retirement by 40?

Fidelity's rule of thumb is 3 times your salary. T. Rowe Price suggests 1.5 to 2.5 times. For comparison, the median family aged 35 to 44 with a retirement account had $61,000 in the Fed's 2025 survey.

How much should I have saved for retirement by 50?

Fidelity says 6 times your salary and T. Rowe Price says 3.5 to 5.5 times. The median family aged 45 to 54 with a retirement account had $133,000 in the Fed's 2025 survey, well under both benchmarks for most salaries.

Is the median or the average the better number to compare myself with?

The median. It's the balance of the family in the middle. The average is pulled up by a small number of very large accounts and runs two to three times the median in every age group.

Do these figures include pensions and Social Security?

No. The Fed's retirement account figures cover IRAs, Keogh accounts and account-type workplace plans such as 401(k)s. A pension that pays a monthly benefit, Social Security and home equity are all left out.

Do people 75 and older have less than people 65 to 74?

In the 2025 survey the median was $257,000 for both groups. Fewer of the older families had an account at all: 44.6% against 49.0%. Withdrawals are part of the picture at those ages, because required minimum distributions start at 73 or 75. Our guide to required minimum distributions explains how those work.

We base our guides on primary sources such as the IRS, the Department of Labor, and federal regulators. Read our editorial policy. Spot an error? Tell us.