America's 12 Richest Counties, 2017

[RCDC]

Is income disparity a point of bragging?

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Gordo

Jackson Hole and Sun Valley are legitimate centers of wealth (similar to Park City and Aspen, also here).

I'm aware that they are all hoity-toity mountain resort areas full of 5 percenters (and relatively few lower income people to dilute their numbers), but these are all still absolutely tiny counties in terms of population. Blaine, Teton, and Pitkin are all around 20,000 people. That's it, only ~20K, in the entire freaking county! My small little random neighborhood on the far northside of chicago has more than twice that many people. Summit County is a little bit bigger at 36,000 people, but still tiny as far as county populations go.

When I think of wealth centers, I think not only of places with assloads of wealth (in aggregate), but also of the places where that wealth is actually created.

[jd3189]

Low key, but all these lists seem to be very meaningless. It can easily be predicted which cities and metro areas are going to be on top and we just commence to the dick measuring before we talk about some other stuff that’s off topic.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by AviationGuy

Per capita income can't be the sole measure. For example, if the cost of living (particularly housing) is twice somewhere compared to where I live, then a person in that other location may make a lot more money than I do, yet have a lower standard of living than I have.

Wealthy households generally own homes, so they would obviously be wealthier, all things equal, if they're located in an area with higher housing costs.

I have a relative in coastal Orange County, CA, and my parents are in suburban Detroit, both homeowners for decades. Guess which household has more wealth despite lower income?

[Sun Belt]

Does population size matter? Maybe. I don't really think so.

Jackson Hole, WY is wealthy AF. It's not generating wealth, because it doesn't have to.

Same for Coastal Maine, super wealthy and it's full of part-time residents.

East coast islands are wealthy.

[Gordo]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

I'm aware that they are all hoity-toity mountain resort areas full of 5 percenters (and relatively few lower income people to dilute their numbers), but these are all still absolutely tiny counties in terms of population. Blaine, Teton, and Pitkin are all around 20,000 people. That's it, only ~20K, in the entire freaking county! My small little random neighborhood on the far northside of chicago has more than twice that many people. Summit County is a little bit bigger at 36,000 people, but still tiny as far as county populations go.

When I think of wealth centers, I think not only of places with assloads of wealth (in aggregate), but also of the places where that wealth is actually created.

Sure, I was just commenting that unlike the oil and other resource extraction counties on the list, these are wealthy places, not just places with relatively high per capita income.

But yes, if we're talking total wealth, then of course big cities are the true wealth centers.

[LouisVanDerWright]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

All I know is that when I think of America's wealth centers, Alaska, Idaho, and Wyoming are always some of the first places that pop into my mind.

Yeah all those random mountain counties are ski towns in low tax states where people "move to" in order to preserve wealth, not create it. Aspen and Jackson Hole in particular are major examples of this.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

All I know is that when I think of America's wealth centers, Alaska, Idaho, and Wyoming are always some of the first places that pop into my mind.

Wyoming should pop into mind. Teton, County is Jackson Hole, home of the country retreat of the Waltons (founders of Walmart) who alone probably skew the results some, but in general it's a ritzy ski resort with a lot of wealthy residents. And beyond the town of Jackson, you have very pricy ranches in the beautiful area adjacent to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

I assume the Idaho area mentioned is there for the same reason--read the Wall Street Journal and you'll see lots of multimillion $ properties in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana for sale.

I don't know much about Bristol Bay, Alaska and I'm curious.

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by Gordo

Sure, I was just commenting that unlike the oil and other resource extraction counties on the list, these are wealthy places, not just places with relatively high per capita income.

But yes, if we're talking total wealth, then of course big cities are the true wealth centers.

I would imagine a lot of the residents of pricey resorts have high incomes without actually working at all. Their money works for them.

[IluvATX]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

Wyoming should pop into mind. Teton, County is Jackson Hole, home of the country retreat of the Waltons (founders of Walmart) who alone probably skew the results some, but in general it's a ritzy ski resort with a lot of wealthy residents. And beyond the town of Jackson, you have very pricy ranches in the beautiful area adjacent to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

I assume the Idaho area mentioned is there for the same reason--read the Wall Street Journal and you'll see lots of multimillion $ properties in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana for sale.

I don't know much about Bristol Bay, Alaska and I'm curious.

There is nothing in Bristol Bay except commercial fishing. Income in all of Alaska is much higher than the states, but everything is more expensive also. It's a different economy altogether and can't be compared to the rest of the US.

[dimondpark]

Ive been following this annual BEA report for years and the following four have always been in the Top 5 for as long as I can remember:

NY, NY
Teton, WY
Pitkin, CO
Marin, CA

[liat91]

I found information about per capita net worth for each county. I then added that with the per capita income for each county. Here are the results for some major counties I looked at in order.
Hunterdon, NJ: $213,235 (highest per capita net worth: $159,394)
Somerset, NJ: $167,153
Marin, CA: $140,491
Morris, NJ: $113,693
Loudoun, VA: $164,431
Fairfax, VA: $144,071
Montgomery, MD: $131,084
Fairfield, CT: $123,939
Norfolk, MA: $119,130
Westchester, NY: $110,193
San Mateo, CA: $103,658

Side Note: New York county had the highest per capita income ($72,057), but had the lowest per capita net worth ($11,552). I cut off the list at $100,000, so that's why it's not on it.

The county has a poverty rate of 17.3%. You couple that with people paying 70% of their income on housing, you can see why the net worth impact of the counties 82 billionaires and 21,000 millionaires is negligible.

[mhays]

Is that average or median? Are primary residences included?

[liat91]

Originally Posted by mhays

Is that average or median? Are primary residences included?

Average

[mhays]

Averages can be interesting. If Jeff Bezos moves into a 1,000-person homeless camp, the average resident of the camp will have a net worth nearing $90,000,000.

[liat91]

Good point, but we can’t forget that there aren’t many Jeff Bezo’s around. Case in point, all that those NY Titans of wealth can only nominally impact the wealth statistics of NY county. Also interesting would be 51 homeless people living in a camp with 49 Jeff Bezo’s.

Using median; Jeff Bezo would be worth $3 scrunched up moist dollar bills.

Using average; all 100 camp residents would have a net worth of 4.41 billion.

Which effect is easier to muse at?