Average 401(k) Balance by Age — and the Median, Which Matters More

From Vanguard's How America Saves 2026 (25th edition) (balances as of 31 December 2025), average and median 401(k) balances by age are: under 25 — $7,259 average, $2,234 median; 25–34 — $50,261 / $18,732; 35–44 — $120,742 / $46,919; 45–54 — $214,991 / $78,730; 55–64 — $305,006 / $107,269; 65+ — $330,186 / $103,202. Across all participants the average is $167,970 and the median is $44,115. Use the median: it is the middle of the distribution and the average is 3.8 times higher because a minority of very large balances pulls it up.

Counting every type of retirement account (401(k), 403(b), TSP, IRAs and plans from past jobs) across all US families, the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances (2022) reports, among families that hold any account: under 35 — $18,600 median, $49,200 average; 35–44 — $45,000 / $141,500; 45–54 — $115,000 / $313,200; 55–64 — $185,000 / $537,700; 65–74 — $199,600 / $609,400; 75+ — $129,500 / $462,400. Those figures exclude families with no retirement account at all: the share holding one ranges from 41.8% (75+) to 62.2% (45–54). Figures are in 2022 dollars, by the age of the family's reference person.

Because the distribution is heavily right-skewed. Across all Vanguard participants the average balance is $167,970 while the median is $44,115 — the mean is 3.8x the median. A relatively small number of participants with very large balances (long tenure, high income, decades of maximum contributions) drags the arithmetic mean far above what a typical saver holds. The median is the value where half of participants have more and half have less, so it is the right benchmark for "where do I stand". Headlines that quote the average as a benchmark set an expectation almost four times the typical balance.

No, and the difference is large. These are balances of Vanguard defined-contribution participants — more than 1,300 qualified plans and nearly 5 million participants for whom Vanguard provides recordkeeping. Americans with no employer-sponsored plan at all do not appear, which pushes every figure up relative to the general population. At the same time a balance is counted per participant per plan, so someone with two old 401(k)s at other recordkeepers and an IRA shows up here holding only their Vanguard slice, which pushes the medians down relative to a person's true total savings. Those two biases run in opposite directions and do not cancel in any measurable way. For an all-families view, the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances (2022) found 54.3% of US families held any retirement account, with a median of $86,900 among those who did.

The data on this page describes what people do have, not what anyone should have — those are different questions and only the first one has a factual answer. As a reference point, the median Vanguard participant holds $18,732 at 25–34, $46,919 at 35–44, $78,730 at 45–54 and $107,269 at 55–64. What you actually need depends on your target retirement age, your spending, other savings and whether you have a pension or expect Social Security to cover part of your costs. A withdrawal-rate framework is more useful than an age benchmark: multiply the annual spending your portfolio must cover by 25 for a 4% withdrawal rate. This is general information, not personal advice.

It is drawdown, not decline in saving. The average for 65+ ($330,186) is higher than for 55–64 ($305,006), while the median ($103,202) is slightly lower than the 55–64 median ($107,269). Two things are happening at once: retirees are withdrawing from their accounts, and participants who roll their balance out of the plan entirely leave the sample. The people most likely to keep money in an employer plan after 65 are those with the largest balances, which holds the average up while the middle of the distribution slips.

More than almost any other single factor in the data. Median balances by years with the current employer run $3,327 at 0–1 years, $21,504 at 2–3, $49,403 at 4–6, $85,393 at 7–9 and $186,335 at 10+ years. Part of that is simply time in the market, and part is a measurement artifact worth understanding: this measures the balance in the CURRENT plan, so a long-tenured employee has all of their workplace savings in one account, while someone who has changed jobs four times may hold the same total spread across accounts that this data never sees.

Men held an average of $194,597 and a median of $52,309; women an average of $146,476 and a median of $42,139. Vanguard reports men's balances running roughly 30% above women's. Gender here is largely a proxy for income and career continuity — women in the sample tend to have lower incomes and more career interruptions. Notably, Vanguard also reports that at each given income level women tended to save at higher rates than men, so the balance gap reflects earnings and time in plan rather than saving behaviour.

Primary source: Vanguard, How America Saves 2026 (25th edition), Figure 53 ("Account balances by participant demographics"), with balances measured at 31 December 2025. The universe is more than 1,300 qualified plans and nearly 5 million participants for whom Vanguard provides recordkeeping. Vanguard publishes How America Saves annually, generally around June. The Federal Reserve figures used for comparison are from the Board's Survey of Consumer Finances (2022), published in the Bulletin "Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2019 to 2022". Both sources are public.