Roth IRA statistics

Three useful numbers, three distinct measures

These are not all “2026 statistics.” September 29, 2026 is this page’s review date. The measurements cover different periods because the sources are released on different schedules.

The market

How much money is in Roth IRAs?

ICI estimates $2.27 trillion in Roth IRAs at year-end 2025, about 12.1% of all IRA assets. This is money held across Roth IRAs, not the amount newly contributed that year. [1]

Roth IRA assets can change because of investment gains or losses, contributions, conversions, rollovers and withdrawals. A Traditional-to-Roth IRA conversion moves assets between IRA types; it does not by itself increase the combined IRA total. An increase in assets is not an investment-return calculation or proof that more people contributed. ICI also revises earlier estimates as new information arrives.

Households, not accounts

How many households own a Roth IRA?

In mid-2025, 37.5 million US households owned Roth IRAs, or 27.8% of all US households. A household with several Roth IRAs is still one household in this estimate. [2]

Source: ICI supplemental Figure A1. Households can own more than one type, so the rows overlap and should not be added. Employer-sponsored IRAs here means SEP, SAR-SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, not 401(k)s. [2]

Roth ownership by age

These percentages describe households within each age group. Age is the age of the survey respondent, not necessarily the age of every IRA owner in that household.

Source: ICI Figure A2. This measures ownership, not new account openings, contributions or the share of all Roth owners in each age group. Small survey differences do not by themselves establish meaningful differences between groups. [2]

A typical balance?

The median and the average answer different questions

ICI’s 2025 survey reports a $48,000 median and a $118,000 mean for Roth IRA assets among Roth-owning households. These are the household’s combined Roth IRA holdings, not the balance of a single account. [2]

• Median: the middle of the balance distribution. It is less affected by unusually large balances.
• Mean: the average. Large balances can pull it well above the median.
• Neither is a personal savings target. The survey combines households at different ages and stages. Being above or below either figure does not establish whether your retirement is funded.

We do not infer a personal percentile from these two figures. An age-specific ranking needs a suitable dataset and a documented calculation. For more household-level breakdowns and survey limitations, see Roth IRA owners by the numbers.

IRS tax-year data

How much goes into Roth IRAs as contributions?

For tax year 2023, the IRS estimates that 9,488,414 taxpayers made regular Roth IRA contributions totaling $32,809,393,000. Rounded, that is 9.49 million taxpayers and $32.81 billion. [3]

The table counts taxpayers, not tax returns or accounts. Its dollar amounts are published in thousands, which we multiply by 1,000. The IRS reports contributions, rollovers and Roth conversions in separate columns; this contribution total does not include the other two.

A different kind of deposit

How much is converted to Roth IRAs?

The IRS reports 1,597,798 taxpayers with Roth conversions totaling $36,652,896,000 for tax year 2023—about 1.60 million taxpayers and $36.65 billion. [3]

These are different transactions. A taxpayer may appear in both rows, so adding the counts would not give the number of unique savers. The conversion total also does not tell us how much federal income tax was due or how many people used a backdoor Roth strategy.

Source: IRS SOI, Table 1, Roth IRA row. Its conversion footnote says SEP/SIMPLE conversions cannot be separately identified in these statistics. These are sample-based estimates, not a count of every transaction. The IRS introduced a new series beginning in 2022; we do not treat old-series and new-series changes as a clean trend without further reconciliation. [3]

A separate withdrawal rule: Roth IRA owners have no lifetime required minimum distributions (RMDs). Inherited Roth IRAs have separate beneficiary distribution requirements. Ownership or conversion statistics do not change those rules. [5]

Dates and definitions travel with the number

Sources and how to use them

Sources checked September 29, 2026. The most recent source is not automatically the right source for every question. Match the period, population and measure before comparing two numbers.

1. ICI, The US Retirement Market, Second Quarter 2026. Released September 17, 2026. Original Excel tables (.xls): Table 1, Q2 2026 row, and Table 10, year-end 2025 row and notes. The type breakdown marks 2025 figures as estimates. Earlier values can be revised when new source data become available.
2. ICI, The Role of IRAs in US Households’ Saving for Retirement, 2025. Research Perspective 32(7), June 2026. Report (PDF) and supplemental tables (.xlsx), Figures A1, A2 and A14. Ownership comes from the Annual Mutual Fund Shareholder Tracking Survey; balances come from the IRA Owners Survey. These weighted household surveys were fielded in May–June 2025. Their populations and measures are not interchangeable with IRS taxpayer estimates.
3. IRS SOI, Taxpayers with Individual Retirement Arrangement (IRA) Plans, by Type of Plan, Tax Year 2023. Table 1, Roth IRA row; source note dated June 2026. Original workbook (.xlsx) and IRS IRA statistics catalog. Estimates use matched Forms 1040, 5498 and 1099-R. The catalog’s latest available year when checked was 2023, and it identifies a new series beginning with 2022.
4. 2026 limits and eligibility. IRS Notice 2025-67 establishes the $7,500 regular IRA limit and $1,100 age-50 catch-up. The IRS contribution-limit explanation covers shared limits, compensation and spousal rules. Publication 590-A explains Roth income eligibility and distinguishes conversions from regular contributions.
5. Roth owner versus beneficiary distributions. 26 CFR §1.408-8(b)(1)(ii) and IRS Publication 590-B, Roth IRA distribution rules. The lifetime exemption applies to the original owner; it is not a blanket exemption for beneficiaries.

Rounding and interpretation

Unless stated otherwise, dollar amounts are nominal: they have not been adjusted for inflation. We keep the source’s units in the detailed tables, label our own calculations, and round headline figures for readability. The exact-looking IRS counts are still estimates based on samples.

We do not divide a market total from one year by a household count from another year to manufacture an “average balance.” Nor do we infer why people chose an account, whether a conversion saved tax, or whether someone is ready to retire from these aggregate figures.

Cite a number with its date and population

For example: “ICI estimated that 37.5 million US households, or 27.8%, owned Roth IRAs in mid-2025.” Cite the underlying ICI report as well as this page when useful.

Corrections and updates