Large suburban home valued at about $1,000,000 in Salinas, California, photo credit Wikipedia

Almost 7.7 million millionaires in the U.S. today

By Dan Burrows, Contributing Writer – Kiplinger

March 01, 2019 – Millionaires are popping up in America like crazy. Indeed, the United States hasn’t seen such a torrid increase in the ranks of millionaires in more than a decade. They can thank record levels for stock prices.

“The six-plus percent rise in millionaire households in 2018 is the strongest rate of growth in that market since the financial downturn 10 years ago,” says David M. Thompson, managing director at Phoenix Marketing International, which tracks the affluent market. “The growth in capital markets in 2018 clearly lifted many more households into the millionaire ranks.”

Total households in the U.S. with at least $1 million in investable assets have increased by around 534,000 in the past 12 months, Thompson notes. In the past decade since the financial crisis, the number of millionaire households has grown by more than two million.

As a result, 6.21 percent  or 7,698,765 U.S. households out of 123,942,960 total households, can now claim millionaire status. That’s up from only 5.8 percent a year ago. To reach that lofty level, you must have investable assets of $1 million or more, excluding the value of your real estate,

employer-sponsored retirement plans, and business partnerships.

As of today, May 19, 2019, according to Worldometers, there are 329, 093,110 people in the U.S. today. Divide that by 123,942,960 households and you get an average of 2.66 people per household.

When imagining where America’s millionaires live, most people probably think of California and New York. But although those states have good shares of millionaires in terms of raw numbers, they don’t have the highest concentrations of rich households. California has more than a million millionaires, and New York State has more than half a million millionaires.

It turns out there are numerous states with higher percentages of well-off households than New York or California, several of which probably will surprise you. And don’t forget that between living costs and taxes, a million dollars goes much further in some states than others.

In New Jersey for example, property taxes have not only been the highest in the country for decades, they are usually 40 percent higher than the No.2 highest property-tax state, which has been either Connecticut or Illinois.

The states and areas where almost eight to almost nine percent of its residents are millionaires just on the basis of investible assets (in order of highest to lowest) are: New Jersey, Washington DC,  Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Hawaii, New Hampshire, and California. Texas has the second-largest number (after California) of millionaires with more than 622,000, but as a percentage of its total 10 million-plus households, it is at just about the nation’s average of 6.2 percent

Here’s a table that provides the millionaire ratings for all 50 states, including the District of Columbia, sorted by the percentage of millionaire households in each state, from highest to lowest. (This article has been slightly edited from the original by Biz India Online News).

Rank State $1 M+ Households % of # # Households Median Inc.  Home Value *
1 New Jersey 293,990 8.95 3,283,467 $76,475 $321,100
2 DC 28,325 8.94 316,927 $77,649 $537,400
3 Connecticut 122,045 8.89 1,373,068 $78,916 $270,100
4 Maryland 200,074 8.85 2,261,087 $78,916 $296,500
5 Massachusetts 230,932 8.60 2,686,137 $74,167 $352,600
6 Hawaii 41,063 8.48 484,405 $74,928 $563,900
7 New Hampshire 42,669 7.98 534,888 $71,305 $244,900
8 California 1,042,027 7.78 13,388,653 $67,169 $443,400
9 Alaska 21,169 7.71 274,391 $76,114 $261,900
10 Virginia 248,958 7.66 3,248,928 $68,766 $255,800
11 Washington 205,446 7.04 2,919,671 $66,174 $286,800
12 New York 529,303 7.03 7,533,370 $62,765 $293,000
13 Colorado 158,073 7.02 2,251,735 $65,458 $286,100
14 Minnesota 150,137 6.76 2,220,975 $65,699 $199,700
15 Illinois 326,081 6.71 4,859,251 $61,229 $179,700
16 Delaware 24,615 6.70 367,593 $63,036 $238,600
17 Rhode Island 27,170 6.50 418,295 $61,043 $242,200
18 Utah 63,870 6.39 999,462 $65,325 $238,300
19 Texas 622,065 6.14 10,131,556 $57,051 $151,500
20 Pennsylvania 309,174 6.07 5,090,306 $56,951 $170,500
21 North Dakota 19,248 5.88 327,393 $61,285 $174,100
22 Oregon 97,160 5.81 1,671,063 $56,119 $265,700
23 Vermont 15,090 5.79 260,607 $57,808 $220,600
24 Wyoming 13,130 5.48 239,441 $60,938 $204,900
25 Florida 454,878 5.47 8,314,234 $50,883 $178,700
26 Kansas 62,073 5.44 1,140,014 $55,477 $139,200
27 Georgia 211,662 5.44 3,891,635 $52,977 $158,400
28 Michigan 214,315 5.43 3,944,777 $52,668 $136,400
29 Arizona 142,085 5.39 2,637,329 $53,510 $193,200
30 Nebraska 40,549 5.30 764,862 $56,675 $142,400
31 Wisconsin 124,968 5.30 2,359,204 $56,759 $169,300
32 Iowa 66,442 5.21 1,275,070 $56,570 $137,200
33 Ohio 243,608 5.20 4,686,753 $52,407 $135,100
34 Maine 29,043 5.12 567,486 $53,024 $179,900
35 Nevada 56,748 5.09 1,115,122 $55,434 $216,400
36 South Dakota 17,776 5.04 352,611 $54,126 $152,700
37 North Carolina 201,449 4.96 4,061,714 $50,320 $161,000
38 Missouri 120,938 4.95 2,441,372 $51,542 $145,400
39 Louisiana 89,097 4.89 1,821,634 $46,710 $152,900
40 Tennessee 128,738 4.86 2,646,608 $48,708 $151,700
41 South Carolina 96,084 4.83 1,988,953 $48,781 $148,600
42 Montana 21,530 4.83 446,176 $50,801 $209,100
43 Indiana 122,974 4.77 2,579,621 $52,182 $130,200
44 Oklahoma 73,325 4.75 1,543,816 $49,767 $125,800
45 New Mexico 37,520 4.64 809,287 $46,718 $163,900
46 Alabama 87,849 4.55 1,929,043 $46,472 $132,100
47 Idaho 28,928 4.53 639,110 $50,985 $176,800
48 Kentucky 77,671 4.38 1,772,382 $46,535 $130,000
49 Arkansas 45,985 3.89 1,181,658 $43,813 $118,500
50 West Virginia 29,031 3.84 756,671 $44,061 $111,600
51 Mississippi 41,685 3.68 1,133,149 $57,652 $109,300
    7,698,765 304.94 123,942,960 $2,990,843 $10,805,100
Avg. Average/State 153,975 6.21 2,478,859 $59,817 $216,102