{
  "title": "Wealth concentration rose after the late 1970s",
  "alt": "Smith, Zidar and Zwick estimate that the wealthiest 0.1 percent of adults held 7.1 percent of wealth in 1978 and 15.7 percent in 2016.",
  "story_url": "https://publicrot.com/stories/average-and-median-family-wealth",
  "story_revision": 3,
  "periods_and_units": [
    {
      "series": "Top 0.1%",
      "period": "1978",
      "value": 7.1,
      "unit": "percent of adult wealth",
      "population": "U.S. adults; wealth split equally within tax units",
      "source_url": "https://zidar.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf3371/files/documents/wealth2023.pdf",
      "locator": "Table III, pp. 564–565",
      "calculation": "Published baseline estimate"
    },
    {
      "series": "Top 0.1%",
      "period": "2016",
      "value": 15.7,
      "unit": "percent of adult wealth",
      "population": "U.S. adults; wealth split equally within tax units",
      "source_url": "https://zidar.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf3371/files/documents/wealth2023.pdf",
      "locator": "Table III, pp. 564–565",
      "calculation": "Published baseline estimate"
    }
  ],
  "chart_specification": {
    "id": "wealth-since-1970s",
    "title": "Wealth concentration rose after the late 1970s",
    "subtitle": "Top 0.1% of U.S. adults • share of wealth • published historical estimates",
    "type": "endpoint_bars",
    "axis": {
      "min": 0,
      "max": 100,
      "unit": "percent",
      "scale": "linear"
    },
    "labels": [
      "1978: 7.1%",
      "2016: 15.7%"
    ],
    "footer": "Source: Smith, Zidar and Zwick (2023), Top Wealth in America, Table III.",
    "note": "Separate adult-based series; wealth split equally within tax units. Do not combine with SCF family figures or DFA household series.",
    "alt": "Smith, Zidar and Zwick estimate that the wealthiest 0.1 percent of adults held 7.1 percent of wealth in 1978 and 15.7 percent in 2016.",
    "rows": [
      {
        "series": "Top 0.1%",
        "period": "1978",
        "value": 7.1,
        "unit": "percent of adult wealth",
        "population": "U.S. adults; wealth split equally within tax units",
        "source_url": "https://zidar.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf3371/files/documents/wealth2023.pdf",
        "locator": "Table III, pp. 564–565",
        "calculation": "Published baseline estimate"
      },
      {
        "series": "Top 0.1%",
        "period": "2016",
        "value": 15.7,
        "unit": "percent of adult wealth",
        "population": "U.S. adults; wealth split equally within tax units",
        "source_url": "https://zidar.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf3371/files/documents/wealth2023.pdf",
        "locator": "Table III, pp. 564–565",
        "calculation": "Published baseline estimate"
      }
    ]
  },
  "source_package_sha256": "8f3df98eae7712d4893b7c3620ffee0cdf4d9c51f0b31f4bd94b8c976d745464",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Top Wealth in America: New Estimates under Heterogeneous Returns",
      "url": "https://zidar.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf3371/files/documents/wealth2023.pdf",
      "publisher": "Smith, Zidar and Zwick; Quarterly Journal of Economics",
      "checked_at": "2026-11-05",
      "provenance": {
        "relationship": "original",
        "origin_url": "https://zidar.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf3371/files/documents/wealth2023.pdf",
        "origin_publisher": "Smith, Zidar and Zwick; Quarterly Journal of Economics",
        "access": "excerpt",
        "locator": "Published 2023 paper, section VI.C p. 557; Table III pp. 564–565; portfolio discussion pp. 518, 553 and 560–561.",
        "note": "Author-hosted published PDF; selected sections read and the historical table visually checked. Individual/adult series splits wealth equally within tax units. Its baseline includes funded pensions and excludes unfunded defined-benefit pensions, Social Security and consumer durables. Capture SHA-256: 520d0b96a8ced8a014794b2510471c6ceef76cc24302a409c128786df97d7817. Source-check date records the research day in America/New_York; the handoff did not retain an exact per-source time."
      }
    }
  ],
  "additional_source_checks": [],
  "production": "Original conventional chart using Matplotlib. No generative imagery.",
  "reuse": "Credit Public Rot and the stated data sources; preserve dates, units and qualifying notes.",
  "review_status": "awaiting_separate_editorial_review"
}