Intergenerational Wealth Transmission and the Racial Wealth Gap in the United States

Abstract

The racial wealth gap in the United States—the difference in median net worth between White and Black households—is one of the most persistent and consequential forms of economic inequality in American society. In 2022, the median White household held approximately 7.8 times the net worth of the median Black household, a ratio that has persisted despite civil rights legislation, anti-discrimination law, and decades of economic growth. This paper examines the sociological mechanisms through which wealth inequality reproduces across generations, with particular attention to differential inheritance and inter vivos transfers, disparities in homeownership rates and housing equity, and the cumulative effects of historical policy exclusion. Drawing on Survey of Consumer Finances data and the panel survey literature on intergenerational wealth mobility, we argue that the racial wealth gap cannot be explained by contemporary income differences alone and requires a structural analysis of how historical exclusions create compounding disadvantage.