Are You Rich And Don’t Know It? Here’s How to Define Being Rich, State by State
What counts as wealthy changes drastically from state to state.
How do you define wealth? When most people think of wealth, they think of money, for obvious reasons. But no matter how much you make, location plays a major factor in how wealthy you are, with different states having very different definitions of wealthy. If you are curious about how close you are to be rich in different parts of America, you’ll definitely want to check out this list of how much income you need in every state to be considered rich.
Based on data from the United States Census, this list shows the median household income in each state, as well as calculating the minimum amount a household needs to earn each year to be in the top 5%. For the most part, there was a clear correlation between the median income and the wealthy income.
Most of the states with the highest threshold for wealth are fairly predictable, as it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that you need to be making over $250,000 annually to be in the top 5 percent in places like California, Hawaii, and New York.
On the flip side, the states that had the lowest minimum household incomes to be in the top 5 percent were West Virginia, Mississippi, and Arkansas, as you can qualify as a top-earning household in each state by making less than $200,000 per year. If you are looking to get the best bang for your buck, you may want to head to one of these states, especially with remote work become increasingly common.
If you want to see how close you are to being wealthy in each state, you can check out the entire list here. And if you find yourself thinking about relocating after giving this list a look, this map shows how much it costs to own a home in every state.
