Summary of US Millionaire Data

Value of a Million Dollars each Year 1850 to 2003 in Dollars of 2002

$25,000,000

Read this graph as follows: $1 million in 1850 would $20,000,000 equal in value approximately $22 million in 2002.

$15,000,000

$10,000,000

$5,000,000

$0 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Note: Data prior to 1913 should be considered approximations, so seemingly sharp fluctuations during the 1800s may be exaggerated.

Calculations for 1850 to 1912 use data adapted from John J. McCusker, "How Much Is That in Real Money?," Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society (2001), Table A-1. Calculations starting 1913 are based on CPI data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

summill.pdf © Robert C. Sahr, Political Science Department, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-6206 06/10/03 e-mail: [email protected]; WWW: http://www.orst.edu/Dept/pol_sci/fac/sahr/sahrhome.html Summary of US Millionaire Data, page 2

Dollars Needed to Equal in Value $1 Million in the Year 2002 for each Year 1850 to 2003

$1,100,000

$1,000,000

$900,000

$800,000

$700,000 Read this graph as follows: To equal the

$600,000 value of $1 million in dollars of the year 2002 would have required about $45,000 in 1850. $500,000

$400,000

$300,000

$200,000

$100,000

$0 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Note: Data prior to 1913 should be considered approximations, so seemingly sharp fluctuations during the 1800s may be exaggerated.

Calculations for 1850 to 1912 use data adapted from John J. McCusker, "How Much Is That in Real Money?," Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society (2001), Table A-1. Calculations starting 1913 are based on CPI data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Summary of US Millionaire Data, page 3

Net worth of selected wealthy Americans in 2002 or at year of death (parentheses), in Billions of Current and Constant (2002) Dollars

Ste phen Girard (ba nking; 18 31) $0.160 John Jacob Astor (furs, etc.; 1848) $0.543 Cornelius Vanderbilt (railroads; 1877) $1.721 Read this as follows: Girard net worth in 1831 was $8 million, William H. Vanderbilt (son of Cornelius; 1883) $3.345 J.P. Morgan (banking; 1913) $2.164 equivalent to about $160 million in dollars of 2002 Frederick Weyerhaeuser (timber; 1914) $3.571 Andrew Carnegie (steel; 1919) $4.948 John T. Dorrance (Campbell Soup; 1930) $1.237 Richard Mellon (coal, steel, oil; 1933) $4.861 Andrew Mellon (coal, steel, oil; 1937) $4.375 John D. Rockefeller (oil; 1937) $17.500 Henry Ford (automobiles; 1947) $8.065 Arthur Davis (Alcoa Aluminum; 1962) $2.381 Robert Wood Johnson (Johnson & Johnson; 1968) $5.181 Haroldson Hunt (oil; 19 74 ) $3.650 Howard Hughes (aircraft; 1976) $4.747 J. Paul Getty (oil; 1976) $6.329 David Packard (Hewlitt-Packard; 1996) $4.243 Lowest listings on Forbes 400 in 2002 $0.550 H. Ross Perot $3.700 Samuel I. Newhouse (newspapers) $7.700 John Kluge (Metromedia) $10.500 Michae l Dell (c ompute rs) $11.200 Lawrence Ellison (Oracle) $15.200 Alic e Wa lton, 3 othe r Wa ltons (Wa l- Ma rt) $18.800 Paul Allen (Microsoft, Sports teams) $21.000 Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway) $36.000 Bill Gates (Microsoft) $43.000

$0 $5 $10 $15 $20 $25 $30 $35 $40 $45 $50

Net worth at death in current dollars Net worth at death or in 2002 in dollars of 2002

Source of current-dollar data: Forbes, October 11, 1999 and September 2002, and Phillips, The Politics of Rich and Poor (1991), ch. 6

Summary of US Millionaire Data, page 4

Number of US Millionaires and Value of $1 Million in Dollars of the Year 2002 for Selected Years 1848 to 1988

2,500,000 $25

Right Scale 2,000,000 $20 a s

1,500,000 $15

1,000,000 $10 Number of millionaire in millions of dollars of 2002 Value of $1 million dollars that ye

500,000 Left $5 Scale

80,000 27,000 50 1,000 4,047 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 13,000 0 $0 1848 1875 1892 1910 1918 1927 1929 1944 1953 1961-62 1965 1968-69 1972-73 1976 1978 1979 1980 1981 1985 1987 1988

Number of millionaires Value of $1 million in dollars of 2002

Source of number of millionaires: Phillips, The Politics of Rich and Poor (1991), Appendix A.