A study that revealed a significant wealth gap went pretty much unreported when it came out last March. The study, conducted by the Insight Center for Community and Economic Development out of California, showed the disparity in wealth (the amount of money left over after you deduct debt from assets) between the races and among gender. What was revealed is not pretty. The median (that’s the type that’s the middle figure, not the average) wealth of a single white man age 18 to 64 in the U.S. in 2007 was $43,800; the median wealth for a single black woman of the same age group is $100.

Once more, if you took all of the money all of the single white men and all of the single black woman in the U.S. that could be scraped together by cashing in 401(k)s, savings, boats, houses, checking accounts and anything else (cars weren’t included, however) and paid off all of the debts of  those people and you arranged each group into a single file line in ascending order of wealth, the person in the middle of the white guy’s line would have nearly $44,000 in cash on him, nearly enough to cover a year’s worth of expenses in America in 2009. The woman in the middle of the African American line wouldn’t have enough cash for month’s worth of groceries.

When the age group is narrows to include only those in the 36 to 49, white men’s median wealth increases to $70,000, while the median wealth of black women declines to $5. Five dollars.

Hispanic women only have it slightly better, with a median wealth of $120 in the 18 to 64 bracket. Black men and Hispanic men weren’t too terribly much better off, managing $7,900 and $9,730, respectively. White women fared second to white men. It’s a close second when looking at the 18 to 64 bracket: $41,500; but in the 36 to 49 range, women own 60 percent ($42,600) of the median wealth of white single men.

A huge disparity of wealth between white, Hispanic and black households also turned up in the study. White families had a median wealth of $167,500, while black and Hispanic couples owned $31,500 and $18,000 in median wealth in 2007.

The problem with wealth doesn’t lie in not having enough spending money. Wealth is the most significant source of funds families use for retirement or in the event of illness or unforeseen circumstances. It’s no surprise, then, that based on these figures that the Insight Center reports one-quarter of black women have only Social Security for their retirement income.

*Thanks to Utne Reader for pointing out this survey.

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