Approximate Numbers of Millionaires, Decamillionaires, Centimillionaires and
Billionaires in the United States, 1848-1990
Millionaires Decamillionaires Centimillionaires Billionaires
1848 50 1
1875 1,000 50 1
1892 4,047 200 6
1910 5,000
1918 10,000 1
1927 15,000 2
1929 20,000 2
1944 13,000 --
1953 27,000 800
1957 44 1
1961/62 80,000 2,500 1
1965 90,000
1968/69 121,000 153 2
1972/73 180,000 4
1976 250,000 2
1978 450,000 1
1979 519,000
1980 574,000 ?
1981 638,000 ?
1982 38,885 400 13
1983 500 15
1984 600 12
1985 832,000 700 13
1986 900 26
1987 1,239,00 81,816 1,200 49
1988 1,500,000 100,000 1,200 51
(1) The statistics and estimates for millionaires are drawn from multiple
sources.
(2) The decamillionaire data for 1982-88 comes from Thomas J. Stealey,
Marketing to the Affluent. The prior numbers are estimates, save for
1848, when there was only 1 decamillionaire--John Jacob Astor.
(3) The data for 1953 and thereafter are derived or estimated from the various tabultaions
of Forbes and Fortune magazines.
(4) The billionaire tallies come from the Forbes and Fortune surveys of the
richest Americans druing the 1980s.
The entire foregoing is adapted from Kevin Phillips, The Politics of Rich and
Poor (HarperPerennial:1991).