Visualizing What You Have To Make Each Year To Reach The Top 1% In Each State

In 2015, the top 1% of Americans made 26.3 times as much income as the bottom 99 percent – an increase from 2013, when they earned 25.3 times as much, according to a recent study released by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning Washington, D.C. think tank.

The study found that from 2009 to 2015, the incomes of the top 1 percent grew faster than the incomes of the bottom 99% in 43 states and the District of Columbia.

While we’ve covered this study before, we thought it’d be helpful to visualize what it takes to enter the top 1% income bracket in each state. The below infographic map presents the minimum annual income required to be in the top one percent.

A few key quick takeaways 

The top five highest one percent income states are on the East Coast. They are…

• Connecticut ($701K)
• DC ($598K)
• New Jersey ($589K)
• Massachusetts ($583K)
• New York ($550K)

Here’s what it looks like at the lower end of the top one percent income states…

• Mississippi ($254K)
• Arkansas ($255K)
• New Mexico ($255K)
• West Virginia ($258K)
• Kentucky (275K)
• Alabama ($298K)
• Maine ($304)
• Hawaii ($311K)
• Idaho ($315K)

And a surprise: why is North Dakota not too far below a state like California, or only in a single category under New York?

• California ($515K)
• New York ($550K)
• North Dakota ($445K) …well, though it doesn’t have Manhattan – one of the largest financial centers in the world – North Dakota did have a recent oil boom up through 2014. In 2015 its top one percent income level was at an incredible $502K. But since 2015 due to a global decline in oil prices the number dropped to $445K.

Places with no state income taxes…

• Texas ($441K)
• Nevada ($341K)
• Alaska ($400K)
• Florida ($418)
• Wyoming ($406K)
• Washington (451K)
• South Dakota (407K)

To be in the top 1 percent nationally in 2015, a family needed an income of $421,926.

* * *

So it turns out, you have to be rich, but not that rich…