Is Your City Among the 10 Richest in the U.S.? A new report reveals the 10 wealthiest cities in America.
By Laura Entis
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
Where are the wealthiest cities in America?
Short answer: The West Coast.
That's what the folks at FindTheBest, an online-research engine, found when they used recent census data to rank the 34 American cities with populations of 500,000 or more based on their percentages of wealthy households (defined as those with an annual income of $150,000 or above).
Four out of the top five cities are Pacific Ocean adjacent -- San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle and San Diego -- and in each of these metropolises, more than 14 percent of households are categorized as "wealthy." Even among the top five, however, there is a disparity in terms of wealth percentage. San Francisco and San Jose -- both part of the San Francisco Bay Area -- absolutely blow the rest of the list away. In both cities, which are clearly benefiting from Silicon Valley's tech explosion, more than 20 percent of households qualify as wealthy.
Related: The 25 Best U.S. Cities for Tech Startups
The researchers at FindtheBest also analyzed a city's wealth in terms of the percentage of residents who obtained a bachelor's and graduate degree. Unsurprisingly, they found a strong correlation between education and wealth: Wealthy cities tended to have at least one well-respected research university, along with a higher percentage of residents with bachelor's and graduate degrees. The correlation wasn't always perfect. For instance, Seattle, with its enormously high percentage of bachelor-degree holding residents (56.6 percent) should theoretically have a larger portion of rich households.
Check out the top 10 wealthiest cities in America below:
1. San Francisco
2. San Jose
3. Washington D.C.
4. Seattle
5. San Diego
6. Boston
7. New York City
8. Los Angeles
9. Denver
10. Austin
