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Sessions119th Congress 118th •117th •116th •115th •114th •113th •112th •111th •110th

This page was last updated in its entirety in 2012. The figures below reflect net worth information for members of Congress based on dataOpenSecrets.org calculated. As of June 2025, Ballotpedia did not identify any other organizations that tracked congressional net worth across the years. One resource, investment research platform Quiver Quantitative, estimated real time congressional net worth as of June 2025.Click here to view its dataset.

In 2018, 229 of 535 (43%) members of Congress had an average net worth of at least $1 million.^[1] According to analysis conducted byPolitifact, 5% to 12% of U.S. citizens had a net worth of at least $1 million.^[2] In 2012, a majority (50%) of Congress had an average net worth of at least $1 million, an historic first.^[3]

Congressional net worth differs depending on how it is calculated. For example, OpenSecrets said of its methodology, "It is difficult to gauge what a lawmaker is worth because disclosure forms do not require exact values. Instead, lawmakers report the value of assets and liabilities within a range. ... To calculate net worth, therefore, we added a lawmaker's ranges of assets and subtracted their range of liabilities. Next, we calculated the midpoint of the resulting range and used this figure for [our rankings]."^[1] News outletRoll Call, on the other hand, looked at minimum net worth, finding only 39% of Congress had a net worth of at least $1 million.^[2] Quiver Quantitative's live estimates, unlike OpenSecrets, did not include outstanding liabilities.^[4]

Analysis provided on this page includes:

• A complete list of the average net worth of Congress from 2004 to 2011/12
• The ten wealthiest (and poorest) members of both theHouse andSenate from 2010 to 2012
• The net worth of new members ofCongress from 2005 to 2015
• How much the congressional delegations of each state were worth from 2004 to 2011
• A complete list of the net worth averages for individual congressional members from 2004 to 2011

For information on which members saw the highest change during their tenure, please see Ballotpedia's page on theChanges in Net Worth of U.S. Senators and Representatives (Personal Gain Index).

Average worth

Note: Report numbers may reflect incoming and outgoing members of congress.

Note: Report numbers may reflect incoming and outgoing members of congress.

Democrats

Note: Report numbers may reflect incoming and outgoing members of congress.

Republicans

Note: Report numbers may reflect incoming and outgoing members of congress.

Independents

Note: Report numbers may reflect incoming and outgoing members of congress.

Top and bottom

Senators

Mark Warner (D-VA) was the wealthiest senator in 2012, with an estimated net worth of $257,481,658.

Mark Pryor (D-AR) was the least wealthy senator in 2012, with an estimated net worth of $8,500

Representatives

Darrell Issa (R-CA) was the wealthiest representative in 2012, with an estimated net worth of $464,115,018

David Valadao (R-CA) was the least wealthy representative in 2012, with an estimated net worth of -$12,167,002

Previous years

Congressional freshmen

Below are average net worth numbers for first year freshman members for each recent session ofCongress.

109th Congress

110th Congress

111th Congress

113th Congress

State averages by year

Click the tabs below to view the state averages for a particular year.

Data and methodology

Data

Every year members of congress are required by law to disclose certain financial information regarding personal assets and liabilities.OpenSecrets.org (The Center for Responsive Politics), a self-proclaimed "nonpartisan guide to money's influence on U.S. elections and public policy," tracks the financial information, and posts it publicly under aCreative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. That data, currently available for the years 2004 to 2010, is listed in part below in the sectionIndividual data.

Congressional financial disclosure forms use value ranges, rather than precise amounts, when reporting assets and liabilities. OpenSecrets gathers this information to build a range of potential values. For instance, if three assets are listed at a value range of $1,001-$15,000, the total range of assets would be listed as a minimum of $3,003 (3 X $1,001) and a maximum value would be $45,000 (3 X $15,000). OpenSecrets combines all assets and liability to form a total potential range of values, and then provides an average value as the best guess of each individual's net worth.^[7]

Analysis

Ballotpedia staff took OpenSecrets predicted net worth averages for all reported members of congress and using statistical software calculated yearly averages and changes for various congressional subsets.

Limitations

OpenSecrets notes some important limitations to the data:^[7]

• Data is not available for a limited number of congressional members.
• The top range for item valuation is listed as "Over $50 million" on forms. When possible OpenSecrets tried to determine a more accurate figure.
• The top range for Senate spousal assets is listed as Over $1 million." When possible OpenSecrets tried to determine a more accurate figure.
• Property (such as personal residences) and non-income producing investments are not required to be reported under ethics laws. However, all mortgages are required to be disclosed.

Individual data

Senate