Over the past 40 years wealth gap in US widens

Chasm between wealthiest households and everyone else has grown more than 50% since the early 1960s
By Jeanne Sahadi
CNNMoney.com senior writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Over the past 40 years, those at the top of the money food chain have seen their wealth grow at a rate far outpacing everyone else, according to a new analysis released by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal research group.

In the early 1960s, the top 1 percent of households in terms of net worth held 125 times the median wealth in the United States. Today, that gap has grown to 190 times.

The top 20 percent of wealth-holding households, meanwhile, held 15 times the overall median wealth in the early 1960s. By 2004, that gap had grown to 23 times. See: Wealth gap has widened more than 50% during past 40 years - Aug. 29, 2006