Why Wealth Reform Matters
A plain-language introduction to the basic problem: wealth concentration, economic security, political influence, and evidence-based reform.
Read ArticleResearch Summaries
This section collects plain-language research articles, live data charts, and source explanation pages for the Wealth Reform Project.
Featured Research Articles
The Top 1 Percent’s Share of U.S. Household Wealth
A data-backed article explaining how the combined top 1 percent share of household net worth changed from 1989:Q3 to 2025:Q4.
Read ArticleShares vs. Levels
An explanation of the difference between measuring wealth by percentage share and measuring wealth by dollar level.
Read ArticleHousing Pressure: Home Prices, Income, and Mortgage Rates
A data-backed article explaining how home prices, income, and mortgage rates affect household financial pressure.
Read ArticleWages, Inflation, and Wealth-Building
A research article explaining what wage growth versus CPI can and cannot tell us about household financial security.
Read ArticleRent Burden, Income, and Wealth-Building
A Census-based article explaining how rent pressure can affect household wealth-building capacity.
Read ArticleRent Burden and Household Income
A planned Census data project on rent pressure, household income, and wealth-building capacity.
Read Project PageLive Data Charts
First Wealth Share Chart
A live test chart showing U.S. household net worth shares by wealth group.
View ChartHousehold Net Worth by Wealth Group
A live chart showing estimated dollar levels of household net worth by wealth group using Federal Reserve DFA data.
View ChartFRED Housing Pressure Chart
A live chart comparing home prices, household income, and mortgage rates using local FRED data files.
View ChartWages and Inflation Chart
A live chart comparing average hourly earnings with consumer prices using an index where the first shared observation equals 100.
View ChartHighest Rent Pressure by State
A Census chart comparing estimated rent pressure across states, with the top 15 in the chart and all states in a table.
View ChartSource Explainers
Federal Reserve DFA
Wealth distribution, household assets, liabilities, and wealth shares.
View SourceFRED
Economic time series including inflation, wages, interest rates, employment, housing, and debt indicators.
View SourceBureau of Labor Statistics
Labor, wages, employment, occupations, productivity, and inflation data.
View SourceCensus Bureau
Income, poverty, housing, geography, household, and regional comparison data.
View SourcePolitical Influence Data
FEC and OpenSecrets data on campaign finance, lobbying, PACs, and industry influence.
View SourceWorld Inequality Database
International data on income and wealth inequality across countries and time.
View SourceHousing Data
Housing prices, rents, affordability, mortgage rates, ownership, and regional cost pressure.
View Source