Client Education · Retirement Savings Benchmarks · 2026

How Does Your IRA Compare to Others Your Age?

Source: IRS Statistics of Income Division · Tax Year 2023 · 71 million IRA account holders · actual tax filings
Avg. Traditional IRA
$225,490
53.7M accounts
Avg. Roth IRA
$57,462
29.3M accounts
Only 1 in 12 filers
8.2%
of tax filers contribute to any IRA
Select your age bracket
Traditional IRA avg.
—
Includes 401(k) rollovers
Roth IRA avg.
—
Built through contributions
Total avg. IRA wealth
—
All accounts combined per person
Total average IRA wealth per person by age — click any row
Total IRA wealth per person (Table 4) differs from per-account type averages above (Table 8) because many people hold multiple account types.

Traditional and Roth IRAs grow differently. Roth leads in the 20s and 30s — younger savers overwhelmingly prefer it. By the late 40s, Traditional surges ahead driven by large 401(k) rollovers averaging $116,500 each. SEP IRAs, used by the self-employed, track closely with Traditional after age 40.

Traditional IRA
Roth IRA
SEP IRA
Averages are per account holder of that type. Source: IRS Table 8, Tax Year 2023.
The rollover effect

In 2023, $653 billion rolled from 401(k)s and pensions into Traditional IRAs — vs. just $89 billion in new contributions across all IRA types.

One average rollover of $116,500 adds more to a Traditional IRA than 15+ years of maxing out a Roth at today's $7,500 limit.

Rollovers peak at ages 60–64 when most retirements occur: $197.7 billion flowed in that bracket alone — more than double the 55–59 bracket.

Roth vs. Traditional — who's contributing more?
20s12 to 1 — Roth leads
30s5 to 1 — Roth leads
40sNear parity
55+Traditional takes over
Overall participation
8.2%
of all U.S. tax filers
Peak age bracket
55–59
10.6% participation rate
Max contributors
~47%
of contributors hit the annual limit
% of tax filers in each age bracket who contributed to any IRA in 2023
Source: IRS Table 4, Tax Year 2023. Participation = taxpayers with IRA contributions ÷ total filers in that bracket.

Getting started is the barrier — not the contribution limit. Participation never breaks 11% even in the peak years, meaning roughly 9 out of 10 eligible filers didn't contribute to an IRA in 2023. Among the small fraction who do, nearly half put in the full annual maximum — consistent savers tend to stay consistent.

Participation drops sharply after 70 because Required Minimum Distributions begin at 73, shifting the focus from accumulation to distribution. Many people at these ages are drawing from IRAs rather than adding to them.

Bottom half (under 50th pct)
~$97k
avg IRA balance
Top 1%
$622,568
6.4× the bottom-half average
Top 1% participation
19.5%
vs. 3–6% in the bottom quartile
Average IRA balance by income percentile (2023)
Source: IRS Table 9, Tax Year 2023. Income percentiles based on adjusted gross income from Form 1040.

Why the bottom 5% average ($101k) is higher than the 5–10% ($79k): The lowest-income bracket includes many retirees who have stopped working — their current income is low, but they accumulated substantial IRAs over decades. The 5–10% bracket skews younger and lower-earning with less time to save.

Higher income = much higher participation. The top 1% participate at 19.5% — more than 6× the rate of the bottom quartile. Access to IRAs is universal, but the propensity and capacity to contribute is strongly tied to income.

Women (all filers)
$164,489
36.3M IRA holders
vs.
Men (all filers)
$247,866
34.8M IRA holders
Breaking it down: married vs. single
Single women
$164,143
14.4M holders
Single men
$134,485
10.7M holders
Single: women lead by
+$29,658
22% more than single men
Married women
$164,767
21.8M holders
Married men
$298,651
24.0M holders
Joint: men lead by
+$133,884
81% more than married women

The most striking finding: Single women have larger average IRAs than single men — $164,143 vs $134,485. The overall gender gap ($164k vs $248k) is almost entirely driven by married couples, where men's balances are 81% higher on average.

The likely explanation: in households with a primary earner and a spouse who worked less or took time off, the primary earner's 401(k) rollovers flow into the traditional IRA. Since men are more often the higher earner in joint-filing households, their IRA balances reflect larger rollover accumulations from employer plans.

Worth noting: men and women hold nearly the same number of IRA accounts (34.8M vs 36.3M), so the gap is in balance size, not account ownership.

A benchmark is a starting point, not a destination.

What matters most is whether your savings — combined with Social Security and other income — will cover what you plan to spend in retirement. Let's review your full picture together.

Talk to an advisor →
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income Division, Tax Year 2023 — Table 4 (IRA plans by age of taxpayer), Table 7 (by filing status and gender), Table 8 (by type of plan and age), Table 9 (by income percentile). All figures are mean averages derived from confidence interval midpoints; actual point estimates may vary slightly. Money amounts in thousands of dollars per IRS methodology. Data covers matched filings of Forms 1040, 5498, and 1099-R. Additional context: Boldin · IRS SOI Data. This material is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
The data behind this tool raises some natural questions. Here are the most common ones.
All figures in this tool come from the IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Division, which publishes detailed data on individual retirement arrangements each year based on actual tax filings. The most recent complete dataset covers Tax Year 2023, released in June 2026 — this is the latest year available as of publication. The data is drawn from matched filings of Form 1040 (individual income tax returns), Form 5498 (IRA contribution information), and Form 1099-R (distributions), covering more than 71 million IRA account holders. Unlike survey-based estimates, these figures come from actual tax records submitted to the IRS. The full dataset is publicly available at irs.gov.
The Traditional and Roth averages (shown in the Traditional vs Roth tab) come from IRS Table 8, which counts each account type separately. If you hold both a Traditional and a Roth IRA, you appear in both rows. The "total average IRA wealth" figure on the Balance by Age tab comes from IRS Table 4, which counts each person once regardless of how many account types they hold — adding up all their IRA balances into a single per-person figure. That's why the total figure is often lower than the Traditional-only average: it pulls in people who have only a Roth (typically smaller balances), only a SEP, or a combination, all averaged together.
No. These figures cover IRAs only — Traditional, Roth, SEP, and SIMPLE accounts reported on Form 5498. Workplace plans like 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and pensions are not included. However, money that has already been rolled from a 401(k) into a Traditional IRA is captured here — which is a major reason why Traditional IRA balances climb so sharply in the 50s and 60s. In 2023 alone, $653 billion rolled from employer plans into Traditional IRAs.
Because averages are pulled upward by a small number of very large accounts. A single person with a $2 million IRA raises the average for everyone in their age bracket. The median IRA balance — the midpoint where half of holders have more and half have less — is approximately $100,000 across all ages, according to Investment Company Institute survey data. The IRS does not publish median figures, only means. When you see a high average and wonder if you're "behind," it's worth remembering that the typical IRA holder is closer to $100,000 than to the published averages.
The average (mean) adds up all balances and divides by the number of people. It's sensitive to outliers — a handful of accounts worth millions can significantly raise the average for an entire group. The median is the middle value when all balances are sorted from lowest to highest — half of people fall above it, half below. For IRA balances, the median is a better indicator of what a "typical" person has saved because it isn't distorted by the largest accounts. The IRS publishes only averages in its Statistics of Income data; median estimates come from household surveys like the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances and ICI's annual retirement survey.
At first glance it seems counterintuitive — the lowest-income filers have larger average IRAs ($101,489) than the 5–10th percentile ($79,443). The explanation is demographic: the bottom 5% of current-year income includes a large number of retirees who have stopped working. Their 2023 income is low because they're no longer earning wages, but they spent decades accumulating retirement savings. The 5–10th percentile skews toward younger, lower-wage earners who haven't had as much time to save. It's a reminder that current income and accumulated wealth don't always move in the same direction.
Two things happen at this stage. First, Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) begin at age 73 — the IRS requires account holders to withdraw a minimum amount each year based on their account balance and life expectancy. These mandatory withdrawals reduce balances over time. Second, many people in this bracket are actively spending from their IRAs in retirement. The 70+ group in Table 8 shows a lower Traditional average ($334,636) than the 65–69 group ($358,146), and the pattern continues as people age and draw down their savings. Roth IRAs are not subject to RMDs during the original owner's lifetime, which is why Roth balances continue growing into the 70+ bracket.
The IRS data covers four types of IRAs reported on Form 5498: Traditional IRAs (tax-deductible contributions, taxable withdrawals), Roth IRAs (after-tax contributions, tax-free qualified withdrawals), SEP IRAs (Simplified Employee Pension, used primarily by self-employed individuals and small business owners), and SIMPLE IRAs (Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees, used by small businesses). Inherited IRAs, rollover IRAs, and spousal IRAs are generally captured within the Traditional IRA category depending on how they are reported. 401(k)s, 403(b)s, pension plans, and HSAs are not included.