IRA Statistics (2026)

Individual retirement accounts are the biggest single pot of retirement money in the country. IRAs held about $19.2 trillion at the end of 2025, roughly 39% of the $49.1 trillion US retirement market, ahead of even 401(k)-style defined-contribution plans (see the table below).

The total slipped to about $18.2 trillion in the first quarter of 2026 as markets pulled back, a reminder that IRA balances move with the stock and bond markets they hold. Even so, the trend over the past two decades has been a steady climb, from roughly 24% of the retirement market to 39%.

IRAs do not exist in isolation. The $49.1 trillion US retirement market at year-end 2025 also included about $14.2 trillion in defined-contribution plans (401(k), 403(b) and similar) and roughly $10 trillion in government defined-benefit pensions, per the Investment Company Institute.

IRAs and employer DC plans together made up about two-thirds of all retirement assets. Retirement savings overall accounted for about 34% of every dollar of household financial assets in the US, which is why IRA trends matter well beyond individual savers.

The growth has been dramatic. IRA assets were about $7.3 trillion in 2014 and reached $19.2 trillion by the end of 2025, roughly a two-and-a-half-fold increase in about a decade (see the chart below).

The path was not a straight line: assets fell in 2022 when both stocks and bonds dropped, then rebounded to $13.6 trillion at year-end 2023, $17.0 trillion in 2024, and $19.2 trillion in 2025. Rising markets plus a steady stream of rollovers from employer plans did most of the work.

IRA ownership hit a record high in mid-2025, when about 44% of US households (roughly 58 million) reported owning at least one IRA, up sharply from 34% a decade earlier (see the chart and table below). More than 71 million taxpayers held IRAs in the IRS's tax-year-2023 tabulations.

Traditional IRAs remain the most common, owned by 33% of households, followed by Roth IRAs at 28% and employer-sponsored SEP or SIMPLE IRAs at about 4%. Many households own more than one type, which is why the pieces add to more than 44%.

By headcount, traditional and Roth ownership are converging, but by dollars they are not close. Traditional IRAs held an estimated 84% of all IRA assets in 2023, with Roth IRAs at about 10% and employer-sponsored IRAs at about 5% (see the chart below).

The gap exists because traditional IRAs are where decades of 401(k) rollovers land, so balances are large. Roth IRAs are younger (created in 1997), funded mostly with smaller after-tax contributions, and growing fast, but they are starting from a much smaller base.

The average depends entirely on who is counting. Fidelity put the average IRA balance at $137,095 in the fourth quarter of 2025, up 7% on the year. IRS data across all account holders is higher, about $225,000 for traditional IRAs and $57,000 for Roth IRAs in tax year 2023 (see the table below).

Averages mislead, though, because a relatively small number of very large accounts pull the mean up. Median balances (secondary and derived here) are far lower, in the neighborhood of $87,000 across retirement accounts, so a typical saver holds much less than the average suggests.

IRA balances build over a lifetime, so age is the biggest single driver of how much someone holds. IRS tax-year-2023 tabulations show average traditional-IRA balances climbing from under $10,000 for savers in their twenties to well over $250,000 for those in their sixties and older.

Roth balances follow the same slope at a lower level, since Roth accounts are newer and capped at smaller annual contributions. The takeaway for younger savers is that time, not just deposit size, does most of the compounding work.

Most IRA money arrives through rollovers, not fresh contributions, and contribution activity is modest. In tax year 2022, about 5.0 million taxpayers contributed to traditional IRAs (average $4,510) and about 10.0 million contributed to Roth IRAs (average $3,482), per IRS data (see the table below).

Only about 16-17% of US households contributed to any IRA in a given year, and among IRA-owning households roughly 38% contributed. Among traditional contributors under 50, more than half (54%) put in the maximum allowed, so the people who do contribute tend to contribute seriously.

The IRS raised the IRA contribution limit to $7,500 for 2026, up from $7,000 in 2025. Savers 50 and older can add a catch-up contribution of $1,100 (up from $1,000), for a total of $8,600 (see the table below).

The limit is a combined cap across all of a person's traditional and Roth IRAs, not a per-account figure. You also need earned income at least equal to what you contribute, which is why a working spouse can fund a spousal IRA for a non-earning partner.

Roth IRAs come with income ceilings that traditional IRAs do not. For 2026, the ability to contribute directly to a Roth phases out between $153,000 and $168,000 of modified adjusted gross income for single filers, and between $242,000 and $252,000 for married couples filing jointly.

Above those ranges, direct Roth contributions are off the table, though the so-called backdoor Roth (contribute to a nondeductible traditional IRA, then convert) remains a legal workaround. Traditional IRA contributions have no income cap, but their deductibility phases out if you or a spouse is covered by a workplace plan.

The single biggest reason IRA assets keep climbing is rollovers from employer plans. Households moved an estimated $670 billion from 401(k)-style plans into traditional IRAs in 2022 alone, and by mid-2025 about 27 million households (61% of traditional-IRA owners) held rollover money (ICI).

When people roll over, they usually move everything: 86% said their most recent rollover included the entire account balance. The top reasons were to consolidate assets in one place (63%) and to avoid leaving money with a former employer (62%).

IRAs are increasingly a spend-down vehicle, not just a savings one. About one-third of traditional-IRA-owning households took a withdrawal in tax year 2024, most of them retirees drawing income or satisfying required minimum distributions.

Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, required minimum distributions from traditional IRAs now begin at age 73 (rising to 75 in 2033). Roth IRAs, by contrast, have no required distributions during the original owner's lifetime, one reason they are prized for estate planning and tax flexibility.

IRAs are heavily tilted toward the stock market. At the most recent detailed read, about 68% of traditional-IRA assets were invested in equities, equity funds, and the equity slice of balanced and target-date funds, with the rest in bonds, cash, and other holdings.

Mutual funds are the single largest vehicle, holding roughly $7.3 to $7.4 trillion, about 40% of all IRA assets. The rest sits in brokerage holdings of individual stocks, ETFs, bank deposits, and insurance products, which is why IRA balances rise and fall with market swings.

An IRA is the most flexible tax-advantaged account most people can open, and the data shows the savers who win are the ones who fund it consistently and stay invested for decades. Whether you choose Roth (pay tax now, withdraw tax-free) or traditional (deduct now, pay tax later) matters less than actually contributing and letting equities compound.

The one gap the averages reveal is engagement: two-thirds of the money arrives passively through rollovers, and only a minority contribute each year. Walnut helps here by letting you organize an IRA (or a rollover) into clear thematic baskets with target weights, track how each is doing against the market, and place trades through your own broker. Nothing here is investment advice.