Census data ranks Plano as wealthiest large city in U.S.
01:22 PM CDT on Thursday, August 28, 2008
By BRUCE TOMASO / The Dallas Morning News
btomaso@dallasnews.com
Plano is the wealthiest large city in America, according to the Census Bureau.
A Census report issued this week shows that among cities of 250,000 or more, Plano (whose estimated population is just over that threshold) has the highest median household income, $84,492.
Rounding out the top five:
• San Jose,. Calif. ($76,963)
• Anchorage, Ala. ($68,726)
• San Francisco ($68,023)
• San Diego ($61,863).
The results apparently surprised Plano officials.
"I'd never heard that before, but it's good to know," Mayor Pat Evans told USA Today.
The poorest larger city in America was Detroit, with a median household income of $28,097, followed closely by Cleveland, at $28,512. One in three Detroit residents lives below the poverty line, according to the Census bureau.
Plano's poverty rate – 5.9 percent – was the lowest among cities of 250,000 or more.
The only Texas city among the top 10 in poverty rate was El Paso, which came in fourth, at 27.4 percent.
Among smaller cities, those with a population of 65,000 to 249,999, Flower Mound had the fifth-highest median household income, $105,812.
In that same population group, Rockwall County tied for the seventh-lowest poverty rate in American, at 4.5 percent.
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