There is a tremendously wide gap between what different groups of Americans have saved for retirement, a survey by GoldIRAGuide.com finds. While 18% of Americans have more than a whopping $1 million in their retirement accounts, a much more significant number, 42%, have less than $25,000 saved for their golden years.

The survey gives a glimpse into the broad landscape of Americans’ retirement savings. Like the economy in general, it shows that retirement saving is increasingly defined by a small percentage of elite at the top, and a much larger percentage of Americans with challenging financial situations making up the plurality.

GoldIRAGuide.com’s survey was conducted among 5,001 adults to find out how much they have in their 401(k), individual retirement account (IRA) and other savings accounts earmarked for retirement, and the results showed eyebrow-raising disparities.

Women and those living in more conservative—or so-called “red” states where Republicans are seated as governors, senators or congressmen—“are much worse off” in terms of their savings than men and those living in so-called liberal states.

The red states of Oklahoma, Indiana and Alabama top the list of those with less than $25,000 saved in their retirement accounts, while the blue states of California, Connecticut and Michigan top the list of those with over $1 million saved in retirement accounts.

A Washington Examiner article earlier this year said that the data shows that since 1993, Democrats have slowly but steadily become the party of the wealthy, as opposed to the party of yore, when it was the party of the working man. “Democrats represented 65% of taxpayers with a household income of $500,000 or more in 2020, according to IRS data, as cited in the piece, “Democrats Are the Party of the Wealthy”. As for the other side, “74% of taxpayers in Republican districts have household incomes of less than $100,000. In 1993, the dynamic was reversed, with the typical Republican congressional district showing it was 14% wealthier than its Democratic counterpart. In 2020, data shows those Republican districts were now 13% poorer.”

The article goes on to say that women are in more desperate retirement situations than men, and hints that this could be a sign of sexism in the workplace in America.

The GoldIRAGuide.com survey backs up this hypothesis. Nearly fully half of women in the survey, 48.9%, have less than $25,000 saved for retirement, compared to just 35.6% of men with this meager amount of retirement savings. On the other hand, men outnumber women nearly 2-to-1 on having over $1 million saved in their retirement accounts.

One of the study’s authors, Liam Hunt, says this finding is troubling—but that it can be countered with financial education, starting in K-12 years, and beyond.

“These new data paint a grim picture, one that depicts most Americans as unprepared for retirement,” Hunt says. “Wealth inequality is not the only systemic contributor. A lack of financial literacy and knowledge handed down through the public education system is a major catalyst of retirement unpreparedness. Fiscal policy and social programs to address poverty alleviation and wealth inequality have limited effect when uncoupled with comprehensive financial education."

Hunt’s comments are, unfortunately, poignant, as a Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis report showed that in 2020, 36% of Americans would have difficulty paying a $400 emergency expense and 12% would not be able to pay for the expense, a statistic that was similar even pre-pandemic.

In sum, the state of American retirement accounts, and the wider state of Americans’ economic situation in general, is uneven, unhealthy, and shows vast gaps.