Richest Counties Statistics in US 2026 | Key Facts

Richest Counties in the US 2026

The richest counties in the United States in 2026 are not spread evenly across the nation — they cluster tightly around two dominant economic engines: the Washington, D.C. metro corridor in Virginia and Maryland, and the San Francisco Bay Area / Silicon Valley in California. According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), the wealthiest American counties are home to some of the most highly educated, highest-earning workforces in the world, driven by federal contracting, cybersecurity, cloud computing, semiconductor manufacturing, and biotechnology. The national median household income stood at $81,604 as of the most recent ACS 1-year estimates, a benchmark that the top counties exceed by two to three times over.

What separates the wealthiest counties in the US from the rest is not just raw income — it is a convergence of elite education levels, low unemployment, robust real estate markets, and proximity to major employment hubs. As of the most recently available verified government data, 149 counties or county equivalents in the United States reported median household incomes above $100,000, out of a total of over 3,000 counties nationwide. The state of Virginia alone accounts for 18 counties in the top-100 wealthiest county list — more than any other state — followed by California and Maryland. These facts reflect a widening geographic concentration of wealth in the U.S., and understanding them is essential for policymakers, economists, and anyone looking at where prosperity is actually being generated across the American landscape in 2026.

Interesting Facts: Richest Counties in the US 2026

The table below presents the most notable and striking facts about America’s richest counties as of 2026, drawn from verified government sources including the U.S. Census Bureau ACS and the BEA county-level income release (February 5, 2026).

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 2024 1-Year and 2019–2023 5-Year Estimates; U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), GDP and Personal Income by County, 2024, released February 5, 2026; U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Poverty in the United States: 2024 (September 2025).

The fact table above underscores just how pronounced the wealth gap is between the richest and average American counties. Loudoun County, Virginia, with a median household income of $177,567, earns more than twice the national median of $81,604 — a gap that has widened over the past decade as the Northern Virginia tech corridor has grown into one of the most dominant employment zones in the country. The county’s poverty rate of roughly 5% is less than half the national poverty rate of 10.6% in 2024, and its homeownership rate of 77.9% significantly exceeds the national average of 65%, reflecting the asset-rich character of the county’s population.

What makes these numbers even more striking is the breadth of wealth concentration documented by the BEA’s February 2026 county-level release — the most recent confirmed government-sourced data as of today. Personal income grew in 2,768 counties in 2024, and Los Angeles County generated a staggering $818.5 billion in total personal income in a single year. Yet it is the per-capita and median household measures where counties like Loudoun, Santa Clara, Falls Church, and Howard truly stand apart. These are not just high-income ZIP codes within larger cities — they are entire jurisdictions where wealth is distributed broadly across the working-age population.

Top 15 Richest Counties in the US 2026

The table below ranks the 15 richest counties in the United States by median household income, based on the U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2019–2023 5-Year Estimates — the most comprehensive and statistically reliable county-level income dataset currently available from the federal government.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 2019–2023 5-Year Estimates; U.S. News & World Report analysis of Census Bureau data, updated January 1, 2025.

Looking at this list, the geographic concentration of wealth in the Washington, D.C. metro area and Northern California is impossible to ignore. Five of the top 12 spots belong to counties in Virginia or Maryland, reflecting the enormous payroll generated by the federal government, defense and intelligence contractors, and the booming cloud and data center industries that have taken root along the Dulles Technology Corridor. Counties like Loudoun and Fairfax are home to the headquarters or major campuses of Amazon Web Services, Leidos, General Dynamics, SAIC, Booz Allen Hamilton, and dozens of other high-paying employers. Four California counties — Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, and San Francisco — round out the top 12, with Silicon Valley’s tech giants driving compensation packages that push median household incomes past $140,000 in each of those jurisdictions.

The diversity within the top 15 is also worth noting from an economic analysis standpoint. Los Alamos County, New Mexico, for example, earns its place not through corporate headquarters or suburban sprawl, but entirely through the Los Alamos National Laboratory — one of the largest science and engineering employers in the country — and its associated STEM workforce. Similarly, Douglas County, Colorado, is a classic high-income bedroom community: its residents commute to Denver’s tech, energy, and aerospace firms, bringing home salaries that place the county among the top ten wealthiest in the nation despite having no major employment center of its own. Nassau County, New York, represents the financial services and professional class that commutes into Manhattan but resides in Long Island’s well-maintained suburban communities.

Virginia’s Richest Counties in the US 2026 | Northern Virginia Wealth Hub

Virginia holds more top-ranked wealthy counties than any other state in the country. Below is a focused breakdown of Virginia’s wealthiest counties and independent cities, using the most recently available government data.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 2024 1-Year Estimates and 2019–2023 5-Year Estimates; Census Reporter (ACS 2024); Virginia Demographics (census.gov data).

The sheer density of high-income counties in Northern Virginia reflects a structural economic reality that goes well beyond just government employment. Loudoun County’s median household income of $178,707 — which is nearly double the US national median and more than double Virginia’s statewide median of $92,090 — is underpinned by its position as the data center capital of the world. Loudoun County hosts more data center square footage than any other single jurisdiction on the planet, drawing massive capital investment and high-paying engineering and operations jobs. The county’s median property value of $701,000 — up 6.7% from $657,000 in 2022 to $701,000 in 2023 — reflects the sustained demand to live and work in this economic powerhouse. Fairfax County, at a median household income of $154,545 according to ACS 2024 1-year data, is home to more than 1.15 million residents and is anchored by the CIA, NRO, and scores of defense IT contractors, making it one of the most economically productive jurisdictions in the country by any measure.

Falls Church, despite having a population of just ~14,600, earns one of the highest median household incomes in the entire nation at $154,734, largely because the city functions as an enclave for senior federal employees, senior executives, and highly credentialed professionals. Its median home value of over $1 million reflects the premium that buyers pay to live within this small, well-run, highly educated city. Prince William County rounds out this Virginia snapshot at a median income of $123,041 — still 51% above the national median — and demonstrates that even the relatively more affordable Northern Virginia jurisdictions operate at an economic level that far exceeds the rest of the country. The average commute time for Loudoun County residents is 31.4 minutes, slightly above the national average, as many residents accept longer drives in exchange for more affordable housing relative to closer-in jurisdictions.

California’s Richest Counties in the US 2026 | Silicon Valley and Bay Area Dominance

California contributes four counties to the national top-12 list, all of them in the San Francisco Bay Area. The table below presents the wealthiest counties in California in 2026, alongside key supporting indicators.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 2023 5-Year Estimates and 2019–2023 5-Year Estimates; Bay Area Vital Signs (MTC, 2023 data); California Demographics (census.gov data), December 2024 update.

Santa Clara County’s median household income of $159,674 places it as the richest county in California and the second-richest in the United States. This is the home of Apple, Google (Alphabet), Intel, Cisco, NVIDIA, and dozens of other global technology leaders, whose compensation packages — including salaries, stock options, and bonuses — push household incomes to levels rarely seen anywhere on Earth outside of financial hubs. The county’s median home value exceeds $1.1 million, and its bachelor’s degree attainment rate of approximately 57% is roughly double the national average of ~34%. San Mateo County, at a median income of $156,000 and an average household income of $226,660 (per the most current Census data as cited by California Demographics, December 2024), is home to Oracle, YouTube, and the legendary community of Atherton — widely cited as the richest city in the United States by per capita income. San Mateo’s inflation-adjusted median income grew by 26% from 2010 to 2023, the largest growth of any Bay Area county, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s Vital Signs data.

Marin County and San Francisco County both exceed $140,000 in median household income, placing them in the top 12 nationally. What is particularly striking about these Bay Area counties is the internal income inequality that exists even within them. According to Bay Area Vital Signs data from the MTC, the 90th percentile household income in the Bay Area was 16.3 times the 10th percentile income in 2023 — up from 12.5 times in 2005. This means that while median incomes are sky-high, there is enormous disparity within these wealthy counties: tech workers and finance professionals at the top earn incomprehensible sums, while service workers and lower-income residents struggle with some of the highest housing costs in the nation. The median home value in San Mateo County exceeds $1.5 million and even Contra Costa County, which ranks below the top-tier Bay Area counties, now reports a median income approaching $105,000 — higher than most entire states.

Richest Counties by Per Capita Personal Income in the US 2026 | BEA Data

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released GDP and Personal Income by County for 2024 on February 5, 2026 — the most recent official government release available as of today. The following table presents key per capita personal income indicators from that release.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), “Gross Domestic Product by County and Personal Income by County, 2024,” released February 5, 2026 (bea.gov); U.S. Census Reporter, ACS 2024 1-Year Estimates.

The BEA’s February 5, 2026 release is the most authoritative government data on county-level economic output and personal income currently available. It confirms that personal income grew in 2,768 of the nation’s 3,106+ counties in 2024, a sign of broad-based income growth across most of America. However, the concentration of wealth at the top remains striking. Los Angeles County’s total personal income of $818.5 billion — for a single county — dwarfs the GDP of many entire nations. Meanwhile, Loving County, Texas, the least populous county in the United States, generated just $10.6 million in personal income, underscoring the vast range of economic scale across American jurisdictions. At the per capita level, Loudoun County and Fairfax County both report per capita personal incomes of approximately $71,300–71,600 — roughly 1.5 times the national per capita figure of $45,256 — reflecting how persistently these Northern Virginia counties outperform the national economy.

The release also marks a structural change in how BEA reports economic data: for the first time, GDP and personal income by county were published in a single combined news release, replacing the previously separate reports. Additionally, BEA announced it has discontinued publication of statistics for metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), with all county-level economic detail now the primary sub-state reporting unit. This affects how economists and policymakers will access and interpret 2026 county income data going forward. For users of this data, it reinforces that county-level analysis is now the gold standard for understanding where American wealth is concentrated — and the data shows, unambiguously, that the richest counties in the US are generating per capita income figures that are far above the rest of the nation.

Poverty and Income Inequality: Richest vs. Poorest Counties in the US 2026

Wealth in the US is not just about the top — it is defined by contrast with counties where poverty remains entrenched. The following table presents a direct comparison of poverty rates and income metrics across the wealth spectrum in 2026, using verified government data.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, “Poverty in the United States: 2024,” September 2025; U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2024 1-Year Estimates; Census Reporter; BEA February 5, 2026 release.

The contrast between the wealthiest and most economically distressed counties in America is stark and deeply structural. According to the Census Bureau’s September 2025 report on poverty in the United States for 2024, the official national poverty rate fell to 10.6% — down 0.4 percentage points from 2023, with 35.9 million people still living in poverty. But in the richest US counties, poverty rates are typically a fraction of this figure. Loudoun County’s poverty rate of approximately 5% is barely half the national rate, and only 4% of children in Loudoun were living in poverty as of 2025 — compared to the national average child poverty rate that runs significantly higher. The connection between educational attainment and income is one of the most consistent findings in all of the Census data: nationally, people with a bachelor’s degree or higher face a poverty rate of just 4%, while those without a high school diploma face a poverty rate of 25.1% (per ACS 2023 data). This directly explains why the richest counties — where 54% to 68% of adults hold bachelor’s degrees — have such dramatically lower poverty rates.

What makes the wealth gap at the county level particularly durable is that it feeds on itself: high-income counties attract more employers, which raises property values, which funds better schools, which produces better-educated graduates, which attracts more employers. Loudoun County’s homeownership rate of 77.9% — versus the national average of 65% — reflects this cycle of asset accumulation. Meanwhile, the median home value of $701,000 in Loudoun (2023) means that homeowners are building equity at a rate that working-class families in lower-income counties simply cannot match. The bottom decile of counties by income — places in the Mississippi Delta, Appalachia, or rural South — often report median household incomes below $35,000, poverty rates above 25%, and bachelor’s degree attainment below 15%. The wealth gap between the richest and poorest American counties is not narrowing — if anything, the concentration of tech and government employment in a handful of metropolitan corridors is making it wider.

Education and Workforce Profile: Richest Counties in the US 2026

Education is one of the most reliable predictors of county-level wealth. The table below documents educational attainment and workforce characteristics for the nation’s wealthiest counties, using verified government ACS data.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 2024 1-Year Estimates and 2019–2023 5-Year Estimates; Census Reporter; Kiplinger analysis of ACS data, January 2026.

The educational profile of America’s richest counties is extraordinary by any measure. Los Alamos County, New Mexico, has the highest share of bachelor’s degree holders of any county in the nation, with 68.3% of adults holding at least a bachelor’s degree — compared to the national average of just ~34% — and the majority of those hold graduate or professional degrees related to nuclear science, physics, engineering, and national security research at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Falls Church, Virginia, reports that ~50% of its residents hold post-graduate degrees — roughly four times the national proportion of adults with graduate degrees (~12–14%) — driven by its concentration of senior federal employees and corporate executives. Fairfax County similarly reports approximately 60% bachelor’s attainment and is the home of seven Fortune 500 companies and a highly credentialed workforce that serves the national security apparatus.

What is particularly revealing in the commute data is that even the wealthiest counties — places where residents could theoretically work locally — show mean commute times hovering around 30 minutes, slightly above the national average of 27.2 minutes. This reflects the reality that wealth concentration in American counties is often suburban in character: residents live in high-income, high-quality suburban jurisdictions but commute into central employment hubs (Washington D.C., San Francisco, Denver, Manhattan). San Mateo County’s 54% bachelor’s attainment rate and median household income of $156,000 reflect the premium placed on housing in communities adjacent to Silicon Valley’s campuses, where highly educated technology workers settle their families. The workforce of these richest counties is not just earning more — it is systematically more credentialed, more mobile, and more deeply embedded in the industries and institutions that generate the highest wages in the modern American economy.

Real Estate and Housing Wealth: Richest Counties in the US 2026

Property values in America’s wealthiest counties have surged dramatically over the past decade. The following table presents median home values and real estate data for the top-ranked counties, using verified government and ACS data.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 2023 5-Year and 1-Year Estimates; Data USA (Loudoun County, Fairfax County profiles); Census Reporter ACS 2024; NestApple analysis of ACS data (2025).

The housing wealth embedded in America’s richest counties represents an enormous and growing source of economic divergence from the rest of the country. San Mateo County’s median home value of over $1.5 million is nearly five times the national median home value of $303,400 — meaning that a homeowner in San Mateo County who purchased an average home a decade ago has likely accumulated more than a million dollars in home equity alone. Santa Clara County’s median home value of $1.11 million reflects the extraordinary demand to live within commuting distance of Apple Park, Googleplex, NVIDIA headquarters, and the hundreds of VC-funded startups that line the valley. Even Loudoun County in Virginia, despite being geographically much larger and having more land available for development, now reports a median home value of $701,000 — more than double the national median — and that value rose 6.7% in a single year from 2022 to 2023, adding tens of thousands of dollars in equity to existing homeowners.

The homeownership rates in these counties reveal an interesting divergence between the Virginia and California clusters. Loudoun and Douglas County report homeownership rates of ~77-78%, reflecting their suburban, family-oriented character where single-family home ownership is the norm. By contrast, Arlington County (VA) — which is more urban and apartment-dense — and Santa Clara County show homeownership rates of 45–56%, reflecting the prevalence of high-income renters who choose urban living despite having the means to purchase. Falls Church’s median home value of over $1 million in a city with a population of just ~14,600 is one of the most concentrated real estate markets in the nation, where limited housing supply combined with extraordinary income levels have pushed prices to levels that dwarf even many major American cities. For buyers and investors, these figures confirm that proximity to the federal government corridor or Silicon Valley remains the single strongest predictor of sustained home value appreciation in the United States.

Regional Breakdown: States with the Most Richest Counties in the US 2026

The concentration of wealth is not uniform across states. The table below shows which states contribute the most counties to the top-100 wealthiest counties list in the United States.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 2019–2023 5-Year Estimates; Wikipedia, “List of Highest-Income Counties in the United States” (ACS-based, updated November 2025); U.S. News & World Report analysis (January 2025).

Virginia’s dominance of the top-100 county wealth list — with 18 counties ranking among the nation’s most affluent — is the defining feature of the American county income landscape. No other state comes close to this concentration at the county level, and it reflects the unique role that Northern Virginia plays as the hub of the US defense-intelligence-technology industrial complex. Maryland’s ~10 counties in the top 100 reflect a similar dynamic: proximity to Washington D.C., the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, the FDA, and major federal agency headquarters drives compensation to levels that enrich entire county populations, not just individual employers. Together, Virginia and Maryland account for roughly 28 of the top-100 wealthiest counties — more than a quarter of the entire list — reflecting the enormous economic footprint of the federal government and its supporting ecosystem.

California’s ~12–14 counties in the top 100 tell a different story: private sector technology wealth, driven by a relatively small number of dominant companies, radiates outward to fill entire county income distributions with high earners. New Jersey’s ~8 counties and New York’s ~7 counties in the top 100 reflect the enduring influence of the New York financial services corridor, where finance, legal, and professional services professionals earn salaries that — when adjusted for the cost of living in suburban New Jersey and Long Island — produce some of the highest real household incomes in the country. Colorado’s Douglas County is noteworthy as the only Intermountain West representative in the very top tier, demonstrating that Denver’s growing status as a tech, aerospace, and energy hub is producing genuine high-income wealth at the county level — a trend that is likely to deepen through the rest of the 2020s.

Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.

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