Here's how much income you need to make the top 1% in each state
- You need to earn $952,902 to be in the top 1% of earners in Connecticut, per a new SmartAsset study.
- But in West Virginia, which has much higher levels of poverty, this is just $374,712.
You need to earn $952,902 a year to be in the top 1% in Connecticut. In West Virginia, by comparison, you need just $374,712.
That's according to a new study by SmartAsset, which calculated the income required to reach the highest-earning 1% in each of the USA's 50 states.
It analyzed 2020 data from the IRS for individual tax filers and adjusted the figures to May 2023 dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index.
On average across the US, you need $652,657 to be classed as part of the top 1%.
Connecticut topped the list, with households needing an annual income of close to $1 million to make the top 1%. The state median income for a one-person household is $66,270, rising to $86,661 for two people, $107,052 for three, and $127,443 for four, per data from the Department of Health and Social Services.
Connecticut is followed by Massachusetts, California, New Jersey, and Washington.
If Washington D.C. were a state, it would have come first in SmartAsset's ranking, with an annual income of $1,013,698 required to be in the capital's top 1%.
West Virginia, which has one of the lowest median state incomes, comes bottom in the ranking. The proportion of the state's population in poverty is around 45% higher than the US average and a third fewer people aged 25 or older with a bachelor's degree or higher than the national average, per Census Bureau data.
Mississippi, New Mexico, Kentucky, and Arkansas join West Virginia to make up the five states with the lowest income needed to make the top 1%.
Here's SmartAsset's full ranking:
- Connecticut $952,902
- Massachusetts $903,401
- California $844,266
- New Jersey $817,346
- Washington $804,853
- New York $776,662
- Colorado $709,092
- Florida $694,987
- Illinois $660,810
- New Hampshire $659,037
- Wyoming $656,118
- Virginia $643,848
- Maryland $633,333
- Texas $631,849
- Utah $630,544
- Minnesota $626,451
- Nevada $603,751
- South Dakota $590,373
- Pennsylvania $588,702
- North Dakota $585,556
- Georgia $585,397
- Oregon $571,813
- Arizona $564,031
- Idaho $560,040
- North Carolina $559,762
- Montana $559,656
- Kansas $554,912
- Rhode Island $548,531
- Tennessee $548,329
- Alaska $542,824
- Nebraska $535,651
- Delaware $529,928
- Vermont $518,039
- Wisconsin $517,321
- South Carolina $508,427
- Michigan $504,671
- Maine $502,605
- Missouri $500,626
- Ohio $500,253
- Hawaii $495,263
- Iowa $483,985
- Indiana $473,685
- Alabama $470,341
- Oklahoma $460,172
- Louisiana $458,269
- Arkansas $450,700
- Kentucky $445,294
- New Mexico $411,395
- Mississippi $381,919
- West Virginia $367,582