When the Great Recession hit, wiping out trillions of dollars in middle-class wealth, young people weren’t spared. They graduated into the weakest labor market since the 1930s, lost homes that many had just purchased, and accumulated an ever-growing pile of student debt that could not be discharged despite their financial distress. Things have gotten somewhat better since the depths of the recession, but young people are still worse off than they were decades ago.

Their diminished economic position is apparent across a range of metrics. First, here is median net worth for young families. I included both the net worth concept used by the Federal Reserve and a modified net worth concept that excludes vehicles. Insofar as vehicles are rapidly depreciating consumer durables, many argue that they should not be counted as assets for these purposes. Without these vehicles, the median young family had a net worth of $1,250 in 2016. This was down from the $7,846 peak in 1995.