The Top 10 U.S. Billionaires

The collective wealth of the top 10 US billionaires has soared by $698bn in the past year, according to a new report from Oxfam America published today on the growing wealth divide. The report warns that Trump administration policies risk driving US inequality to new heights but points out that both Republican and Democratic administrations have exacerbated the US’s growing wealth gap.

Using Federal Reserve data from 1989 to 2022, researchers also calculated that the top 1% of households gained 101 times more wealth than the median household during that time span and 987 times the wealth of a household at the bottom 20th percentile of income. This translated to a gain of $8.35m per household for the top 1% of households, compared with $83,000 for the average household during that 33-year period.

How have Trump’s policies impacted the figures? Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill”, passed by Congress in May, has been one of the “single largest transfers of wealth upwards in decades,” according to the report, by cutting tax for the wealthy and corporations.

-The Guardian

There were 36.8 million people living in poverty in 2023 (U.S. Census Bureau).

The 2025 Federal Poverty Level (FPL) for a single-person household is $15,650, and for a two-person household, it is $21,150. These guidelines are used to determine eligibility for various programs, with the level increasing for each additional person in a household. The guidelines are published by the Department of Health and Human Services and went into effect on January 15, 2025. 

Family Size	2025 Poverty Guideline
1-person	$15,650
2-person	$21,150
3-person	$26,650
4-person	$32,150
5-person	$37,650