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East coast, west coast: where the money lives

Released: 
March 17, 2013

Most wealthy Americans live near prosperous metropolitan areas, particularly on the east and west coasts.

If you want to find the most affluent Americans, scan the east and west coasts. Nearly 72 percent of all high-income households (those in the top 5 percent, making $191,469 or more) are in the country’s top 50 most populous metropolitan areas. And most of those are on the coasts.

The wealthiest concentration of high-income households is in the Connecticut towns of Bridgeport, Stamford and Norwalk, outside New York City. 17 percent qualified between 2006 and 2011.

Second place: the San Jose, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara area, south of San Francisco. 15.9 percent of those households are high-income.

Want to know more about the geography of wealth? Check out today’s infographic and see “What Do Others Say?” Then add to the discussion below. Is your hometown home to big money?