Here’s How Much People Make In Washington's 'Richest County'

Using income data compiled from over 2,000 counties nationwide, financial news and opinion website 24/7 Wall St. has assembled a report ranking the richest county in every state. In Washington, the winner will likely come as no surprise, as it's also home to some of the richest people in the world: King County.

The typical King County household earns about $89,418 a year, according to the report published in January.

King County earning stats:

• Poverty Rate: 9.5 percent (State: 11.5 percent)
• October 2019 Unemployment: 2.7 percent (State: 4.5 percent)
• Adults with a bachelor’s degree: 51.4 percent (State: 35.3 percent)
• Largest place in the county: Seattle

Of course, high rent prices and other costs are likely to take a healthy bite out of a typical household's earnings in many King County cities, like Seattle or Bellevue.

"Many of the counties on this list — particulary those around major urban areas like New York City and Washington D.C. — have a high cost of living that necessitates higher overall incomes to some degree," according to 24/7 Wall St. "Another factor contributing to highter incomes in the [counties] on this list is the skill level of the labor force."

Across the country, the median household in the wealthiest counties earned between $61,000 and $136,000 a year, with Loudoun County, Virginia, coming in as the wealthiest county in the nation.

The top five richest counties in the country were rounded out by Howard County, Maryland ($117,730); Santa Clara County, California ($116,178); Douglas County, Colorado ($115,314); and Los Alamos County, New Mexico ($115,248).

At the other end of the spectrum, Arizona’s Maricopa County had the lowest median income of the wealthiest counties at $61,606. Still, the median household income in Maricopa County was close to $5,000 higher than in the rest of the state.

To determine the richest county in each state, 24/7 Wall St. looked through the median annual household incomes for each U.S. county using five-year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2018 American Community Survey.

The full methodology and report are available at 24/7 Wall St.