This report examines the growing racial wealth divide for Black and Latinos households and the ways that accelerating concentrations of wealth at the top compound and exacerbate this divide. We look at trends in wealth accumulation from 1983 to 2013, as well as projections of what the next thirty years might bring. We also consider the impact public policy has had in contributing to the racial wealth divide and how new policies can close this gap.

•   Over the past 30 years, the average wealth of White families has grown by 84%—1.2 times the rate of growth for the Latino population and three times the rate of growth for the Black population. If the past 30 years were to repeat, the next three decades would see the average wealth of White households increase by over $18,000 per year, while Latino and Black households would see their respective wealth increase by about $2,250 and $750 per year.
•   Over the past 30 years, the wealth of the Forbes 400 richest Americans has grown by an average of 736%—10 times the rate of growth for the Latino population and 27 times the rate of growth for the Black population. Today, the wealthiest 100 members of the Forbes list alone own about as much wealth as the entire African- American population combined, while the wealthiest 186 members of the Forbes 400 own as much wealth as the entire Latino population combined. If average Black households had enjoyed the same growth rate as the Forbes 400 over the past 30 years, they would have an extra $475,000 in wealth today. Latino households would have an extra $386,000.
•   By 2043—the year in which it is projected that people of color will make up a majority of the U.S. population— the wealth divide between White families and Latino and Black families will have doubled, on average, from about $500,000 in 2013 to over $1 million.
•   If average Black family wealth continues to grow at the same pace it has over the past three decades, it would take Black families 228 years to amass the same amount of wealth White families have today. That’s just 17 years shorter than the 245-year span of slavery in this country. For the average Latino family, it would take 84 years to amass the same amount of wealth White families have today—that’s the year 2097.

In order to address the racial wealth divide, policymakers first need to understand how current federal policies are leaving households of color behind.

Only by reforming the U.S. tax code and redeploying the more than half-trillion dollars spent on unfair tax programs can we ensure that all families—particularly households of color—have the same opportunities to build wealth that wealthy families currently enjoy.

Expanding opportunity for those at the bottom of the economic spectrum is not enough: we must also address the growing concentration of wealth at the top, predominantly in White hands, if we are going to reduce the racial wealth divide.