Mapped: The Income Needed to Join the Top 1% in Every State
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Mapped: Income Needed to Join the Top 1% by State (2025)
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Key Takeaways
Coastal economies, particularly in the Northeast and on the West Coast, dominate the upper half of the ranking.
Connecticut leads the nation, where you’d need to earn more than $1.05 million to join the top 1% by income.
What it takes to join the top 1% of earners varies across the United States. This map highlights the income floor required to enter the wealthiest bracket in each state for 2025. The spread is wide, stretching from over $1 million at the top to barely $400,000 in less wealthy states.
High-paying industries like finance, technology, and professional services cluster in coastal states, pushing top incomes even higher. Meanwhile, states with smaller economies and lower costs of living require far less to reach the elite group.
The data for this visualization comes from SmartAsset. It ranks all 50 states by the annual income required to enter the top 1%, based on tax return data. The table below also includes the number of households in this bracket and the corresponding income floor for the top 5%.
Where You Need the Most to Join the 1%
Connecticut tops the list with a $1,056,996 income floor, making it the only state above the $1 million mark.
RankStateTop 1% of earners# of top 1% returnsTop 5% of earners
1Connecticut$1,056,99616,917$362,263
2Massachusetts$965,17032,795$378,434
3California$905,396175,045$353,073
4New Jersey$901,08243,042$367,108
5New York$891,64091,840$307,753
6Florida$859,381105,101$281,811
7Washington$819,10135,597$355,767
8Colorado$772,98927,685$318,659
9Wyoming$771,3692,611$255,320
10Texas$743,955128,130$284,661
11New Hampshire$735,3746,796$311,145
12Illinois$731,20256,794$292,729
13Nevada$703,71314,754$248,739
14Virginia$701,79239,103$314,694
15North Dakota$695,7593,431$272,755
16Utah$690,54813,991$270,645
17South Dakota$687,1904,062$255,851
18Maryland$677,54329,040$304,250
19Minnesota$671,40826,423$285,607
20Georgia$662,82146,220$267,958
21Montana$656,8305,101$251,774
22Pennsylvania$655,63658,541$272,141
23Arizona$641,26231,872$261,362
24North Carolina$640,78346,525$268,730
25Tennessee$638,29930,531$247,765
26Idaho$627,8398,145$249,451
27Kansas$609,94612,643$253,834
28Nebraska$603,8998,660$251,139
29Rhode Island$603,1625,224$258,276
30Oregon$603,00619,053$270,877
31Alaska$586,3813,223$266,499
32Vermont$583,5593,123$249,931
33South Carolina$580,60023,203$241,531
34Delaware$578,5804,726$260,787
35Wisconsin$566,71127,293$242,066
36Michigan$561,58245,218$241,403
37Hawaii$561,1476,472$249,850
38Missouri$559,04326,898$237,461
39Iowa$554,04613,821$241,591
40Louisiana$551,12518,593$225,674
41Maine$550,9366,618$236,338
42Ohio$550,72453,103$232,196
43Oklahoma$544,67916,106$224,074
44Alabama$532,60020,185$226,634
45Indiana$531,33230,120$227,098
46Arkansas$517,76112,198$217,087
47Kentucky$496,28118,395$215,196
48New Mexico$451,6399,310$211,101
49Mississippi$439,47911,731$195,171
50West Virginia$416,3107,316$196,335
Massachusetts ($965,170) and California ($905,396) follow in second and third place, both supported by large, high-skill job markets. States in the Northeast and along the West Coast dominate the top positions due to dense economic activity and elevated earnings in specialized industries.
Middle-Tier States Still Require High Earnings
States like Colorado, Washington, and Virginia sit in the upper-middle tier, requiring between $700,000 and $820,000 to qualify for the top 1%. These states benefit from fast-growing metropolitan areas, strong tech or government-driven employment, and rising household incomes.
Even in energy-focused states such as Wyoming and North Dakota, the income floors exceed $690,000, showing how pockets of high-paying industries influence overall thresholds.
The Most Affordable States for Top 1% Status
At the bottom of the ranking, West Virginia’s $416,310 threshold is the lowest in the country, followed by Mississippi ($439,479) and New Mexico ($451,639). Lower costs of living, smaller urban job markets, and fewer high-paying industry clusters contribute to these more modest thresholds.
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