With a $23.3 trillion economy – accounting for nearly a quarter of global economic output in 2021 – the United States is the wealthiest country in the world by a wide margin. But despite its economic strength, the U.S. is also home to some of the world’s highest levels of income inequality. According to the World Bank, the wealth gap between the rich and poor in the U.S. is more pronounced than in China, Russia, or any highly developed European country with available data.
The latest available figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show that more than 41 million Americans live below the poverty line, which for a single household, for example, means (in most of the country) they live on an annual income of $14,580 or less. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, nearly 12.5 million American households earn more than $200,000 a year, and over 23% of all income in the U.S. is controlled by the top 5% of households by earnings.
Not only concentrated in the hands of a relative few, wealth is also geographically concentrated in the United States. Across the country, there are communities defined, at least in part, by their affluence – wealthy enclaves where incomes far exceed that of the average American household.
Using five-year data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey, 24/7 Wall St. identified the richest town in every state. Towns – defined for the purposes of this story as any community with populations between 1,000 and 25,000 people – were ranked on average household income.
In every town on this list, the average household income exceeds the $97,196 national average by more than $21,000. In half of all states, the average household income in the wealthiest town exceeds the national average by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Incomes tend to rise with education levels in the United States, and the vast majority of towns on this list have well-educated populations. Nationwide, 33.7% of adults 25 and older have at least a bachelor’s degree. In all but nine towns on this list, the bachelor’s degree attainment rate exceeds 50%. (This is where the 25 richest American billionaires went to college.)
Not surprisingly, the high incomes in these communities are reflected in property values. In the vast majority of towns on this list, the typical home is worth over half a million dollars. (These are the states with the worst housing shortages for low income Americans.)
Click here to see the richest town in every state.
Click here to see our detailed methodology.
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