How Many Arizonans Have a Will? (Statistics 2026)

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Ask a room full of Arizonans whether they have a will, and roughly two out of three will say no. The single most-cited estate planning document in the country is one most adults still do not own.

This page pulls together the most recent, real numbers on will ownership: national surveys from Pew Research, Gallup, Caring.com, Trust & Will, and AARP, anchored to Arizona's own adult population from the Census. State-level will-rate data is thin, so where no Arizona-specific figure exists we use the national rate and say so, then scale it to Arizona. Every figure below is linked to its source at the foot of the page. Updated July 2026.

Contents:

The big picture: about a third

1. About a third of American adults have a will

In a Pew Research Center survey of 8,750 US adults conducted in September 2025, 32% said they had created a will.1 There is no reason to think Arizona sits far from that national baseline, which puts most of the state's adults in the "no will" column.

2. Other national surveys land between a quarter and a half

The exact share depends on who is asking and how. Caring.com's 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study found just 24% of respondents had a will.2 Gallup, which has tracked the question since 1990 and phrases it more broadly, has long recorded readings near 46%.3 Trust & Will's 2026 report put will ownership at 26% and found that 56% of adults have no estate planning documents at all.4 The takeaway across every source: somewhere between a quarter and a half, and never a majority.

What it means for Arizona

3. Roughly 5.9 million Arizona adults, and most have no will

Arizona's population reached 7,582,384 in the Census Bureau's 2024 estimate, with a median age of 39.4 years and a median household income of $81,486.5 Adults aged 18 and over make up roughly 78% of the state, which is about 5.9 million people. Apply the national will rate of 24% to 32% and you get somewhere between 1.4 million and 1.9 million Arizonans with a will, meaning about 4 million adults in the state have none.

Will ownership by age

4. Will ownership more than triples from your twenties to your seventies

Age is the strongest single predictor. Gallup found that just 20% of adults under 30 have a will, rising to 36% of those aged 30 to 49, 53% of those 50 to 64, and 76% of adults aged 65 and older.6 Given that a younger-skewing state still has millions of residents under 50, the low youth rate pulls the overall Arizona number down.

5. Even Arizonans in their sixties are only about even

Pew's 2025 data shows the climb in detail: 46% of adults in their 60s have a will, 66% of those in their 70s, and about 80% of those 80 and older.7 With roughly 18.6% of Arizona's population aged 65 or over, one of the highest senior shares in the country, the state has a large group entering the ages where will ownership finally becomes the norm.

By income, education and race

6. Higher earners are roughly twice as likely to have a will

Gallup found will ownership rose from 30% among adults in households earning under $40,000, to 49% in the $40,000 to $99,999 band, to 61% among those earning $100,000 or more.8 Arizona's median household income of $81,486 places the typical household squarely in the middle band, where fewer than half have a will.9

7. College graduates are well ahead

Education tracks income closely. In the same Gallup data, 57% of college graduates had a will versus 40% of adults without a degree.10

8. A persistent racial gap

Gallup recorded 55% will ownership among White adults, nearly double the 28% among non-White adults.11 In a state where a large share of residents are Hispanic, that national gap suggests will coverage across much of Arizona's population runs below the headline average.

GroupShare with a will (US)
Adults under 3020%
Adults 65 and older76%
Household income under $40k30%
Household income $100k+61%
No college degree40%
College graduate57%
White adults55%
Non-White adults28%

The pandemic bump and the decline since

9. The pandemic briefly closed the age gap

COVID-19 pushed a wave of younger adults to act. Caring.com found that the share of adults aged 18 to 34 with a will jumped from 16% in 2020 to 26% in 2021, a 63% increase in a single year, and for the first time that group was more likely to have a will than adults aged 35 to 54.12

10. Nearly half of young adults said the pandemic made them think about it

The driver was explicit: 45% of adults aged 18 to 34 said COVID-19 made them consider getting a will for the first time.13

11. Since the peak, will ownership has slipped back

The bump did not hold. Caring.com's tracking shows the share of adults with a will falling from 33% in 2022 to 24% in 2025, a drop of 9 percentage points in three years.14 Trust & Will likewise recorded will ownership at 26% in its 2026 report, down from 31% a year earlier.15 The urgency of 2020 and 2021 has faded, and the numbers are drifting back down.

Why Arizonans skip it

12. The top reason is not cost, it is "not enough assets" and procrastination

When Trust & Will asked why people had no will or trust, the leading answers were "I do not think I have enough assets to need one" at 27%, "I have not gotten around to it" at 23%, "I do not know where to start" at 17%, and "it feels too expensive" at 15%.16 Cost ranks well behind the belief that a will is unnecessary or simply not urgent.

13. Procrastination is the single biggest barrier

Putting it off shows up everywhere. Caring.com found 43% of adults without a will said they just had not gotten around to it, and AARP reported the same top reason years earlier at 47%.17 A separate D.A. Davidson survey found 32% of Americans gave the same answer.18 The gap between intention and action is wide: Trust & Will found 73% of adults say estate planning is personally important to them, while most still have nothing in place.19

What happens in Arizona without a will

14. Without a will, Arizona law writes one for you

When an Arizona resident dies without a valid will, the estate passes under the state's intestate succession rules in Title 14 of the Arizona Revised Statutes. Under A.R.S. section 14-2102, a surviving spouse takes the entire estate when all the decedent's children are also the spouse's children, but when there are children from another relationship, the spouse keeps only half of the separate property and the rest passes to the children.20 Arizona's intestacy statutes only recognize spouses and blood or adopted relatives, so stepchildren you never formally adopted inherit nothing.21 For the roughly 4 million Arizona adults without a will, that default is the plan, whether it matches their wishes or not.

Writing your own will is the way to override those defaults. If you want to name your own beneficiaries, guardians, and executor rather than leave it to the statute, our guided will builder walks you through it step by step. For more state figures, see our companion piece on will statistics in Arizona.

Sources

  1. 1Pew Research Center, Experiences With Estate Planning (2025) (pewresearch.org)
  2. 2Caring.com, 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study (caring.com)
  3. 3Gallup, How Many Americans Have a Will? (2021) (news.gallup.com)
  4. 4Trust & Will, 2026 Estate Planning Report (trustandwill.com)
  5. 5Census Reporter, Arizona Profile (ACS 2024) (censusreporter.org)
  6. 6Gallup, How Many Americans Have a Will? (age breakdown) (news.gallup.com)
  7. 7Pew Research Center, will ownership by age (2025) (pewresearch.org)
  8. 8Gallup, will ownership by household income (news.gallup.com)
  9. 9Census Reporter, Arizona median household income (censusreporter.org)
  10. 10Gallup, will ownership by education (news.gallup.com)
  11. 11Gallup, will ownership by race (news.gallup.com)
  12. 12Caring.com, 2021 Wills and Estate Planning Study (caring.com)
  13. 13Caring.com/PRWeb, young adults and COVID-19 (2021) (prweb.com)
  14. 14Caring.com, decline in will ownership 2022 to 2025 (caring.com)
  15. 15Trust & Will, will ownership 26% in 2026 (trustandwill.com)
  16. 16Trust & Will, top reasons for not having a will (trustandwill.com)
  17. 17AARP, majority of adults lack a will (aarp.org)
  18. 18InvestmentNews, D.A. Davidson estate planning survey (investmentnews.com)
  19. 19Trust & Will, 73% say estate planning is important (trustandwill.com)
  20. 20Arizona Revised Statutes 14-2102, intestate share of spouse (azleg.gov)
  21. 21Nolo, Intestate Succession in Arizona (nolo.com)
Max Kuch

About the author

Max Kuch

Max Kuch writes about estate planning, wills and inheritance for Arizona Last Will. He gathers the numbers from official Arizona and US public data, then explains what they mean for anyone thinking about putting their wishes in writing.

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Frequently asked questions

The document you generate is a ready-to-use draft, not a will that is already in force. Under A.R.S. Section 14-2503, Arizona recognizes a holographic will as valid when the signature and the material provisions are in your own handwriting. That means you take the draft and copy the substantive parts out by hand, then sign it. Once you have done that, no witnesses and no notary are required for it to be legally effective.

Arizona law treats a handwritten (holographic) will differently from a typed one. A printed document that you simply sign would need witnesses to be valid. A holographic will skips the witness requirement, but only because the key provisions are in your own handwriting, which is what proves the document is genuinely yours. So the handwriting is not busywork: it is the exact thing that makes the will valid without witnesses in Arizona.

Arizona is a community property state, which changes how this works. Your spouse already owns one half of the community property you built during the marriage, and that half is theirs regardless of what your will says. Beyond that, Arizona has no spousal elective share: unlike most states, it does not let a surviving spouse claim a fixed percentage of your estate, because community property is treated as the protection instead. You can generally disinherit an adult child, but to avoid an accidental omission being challenged you should name the child clearly and state your intention. A short, deliberate sentence is far safer than silence.

Keep the signed original somewhere safe and tell the person you named as personal representative where it is, since only the original can be probated. A fireproof box or safe at home works, as does a bank safe deposit box (be aware access can be delayed after death). Arizona also lets you deposit your will with the clerk of the superior court for safekeeping during your lifetime under A.R.S. Section 14-2515. There is no statewide will registry in Arizona, so make sure at least one trusted person knows the location.

We strongly recommend against a single joint document. Each spouse should make a separate will. The clean way to do this is mirror wills: two individual holographic wills with matching terms, for example each leaving everything to the other and then to the children. Because a holographic will must be in the testator's own handwriting, one shared sheet cannot be in both of your handwritings at once. Separate wills also let either of you update your own will later without tangling the other's.

Yes. A will only takes effect at death, so you can revise it any time while you are alive and of sound mind. The simplest and safest route is to handwrite a fresh holographic will that states it revokes all prior wills, then sign and date it. Avoid crossing things out or writing notes in the margins of an existing will, since that invites confusion and disputes. After a major life change such as a marriage, divorce, or a new grandchild, it is worth making a new one.

No, and we do not pretend it does. This service helps you produce a clear, well-structured draft for a straightforward Arizona estate. If your situation is more involved, for example a blended family, a business, property in more than one state, a special needs beneficiary, or a likely dispute among heirs, you should have an Arizona estate planning attorney review your plan. Think of this as a solid starting point, not legal advice.

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