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Richest Metro Areas in the U.S.

There are 56 metro areas in the United States with a population over 1 million. Which ones have the highest median household income?
American Community Survey, 1 year estimates. 2024.
Areas within the same Combined Statistical Area (CSA) marked with the same color
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Last updated: December 19, 2025
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First submittedSeptember 26, 2019
Times taken43,583
Average score70.0%
Rating4.42
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$
Metro Area
164,801
San Jose
135,590
San Francisco
126,244
Washington, DC
117,825
Boston
112,388
Seattle
109,132
San Diego
108,046
Denver
102,144
Raleigh
100,548
Salt Lake City
99,897
Austin
99,852
New York City
98,994
Portland
98,775
Sacramento
98,666
Baltimore
97,928
Minneapolis
96,405
Los Angeles
94,419
Hartford
92,733
Dallas
92,344
Atlanta
91,013
Riverside
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52 Comments
TravelingMama
+16
Level 72
Sep 29, 2019
I'm not sure having a higher median income necessarily equates to being the "wealthiest." For example, I live between Sacramento and the bay area and these income numbers don't go very far with the cost of living here. But if I was making $71k in Boise or Little Rock, I could be living a much wealthier lifestyle.
IsleAuHaulte
+13
Level 92
Oct 2, 2019
Welcome to statistics. Statistics always lie.
cornflakesfu
+49
Level 89
Oct 12, 2019
Nowhere on this quiz does it say that these are the 15 urban areas with the highest quality of living. I'm fairly comfortable with "more money = wealthier." No claims are being made as to what you can or can't do with that money.

As the Beatles said, money can't buy you love. And as Homer Simpson said, it can't buy you a dinosaur.

IsleAuHaulte
+4
Level 92
Oct 18, 2022
Make twice as much money where a house costs 4 times as much, etc. doesn't really make anyone wealthier.
SpencerGT
+2
Level 68
Oct 19, 2022
It depends on how you define "wealth", I guess.
kalbahamut
+3
Level 79
Nov 23, 2022
It's not like there's no correlation between wealth as measured here and high standards of living; and there's no lie in the statistics unless you infer one that's not there.
pellam
+4
Level 74
Nov 20, 2019
No Richmond?
MCdoesgeography
+1
Level 74
Nov 26, 2023
Maybe not above 1 million in the metro area
Lithian5032
+1
Level 59
Jan 16, 2025
richmond only has about 223,000 people as of 2023
ing
+3
Level 73
Nov 20, 2019
Somewhat surprised that nowhere in Texas -- e.g. Austin -- has made it onto this list yet.
chailattee
+4
Level 68
Apr 30, 2021
Texas is rapidly urbanizing and cities like Austin are rapidly becoming richer, but the cost of living is lower here, which equals lower incomes.
blizzrd33
+10
Level 81
Oct 18, 2022
Austin is on the list now
MoP444
+2
Level 14
Nov 26, 2022
Yep, and cost of living in Texas will be just as bad as California, so not much better really
Quizmaster
+3
Level ∞
Dec 19, 2025
Housing prices in Austin and Dallas have actually fallen by quite a bit in the last two years, even as household income as continued to rise!

It turns out that building houses lowers the price of housing.

Claudiospin
+4
Level 64
Jul 25, 2020
Maybe accept St. Paul in the Minneapolis one?
parkave
+3
Level 56
Jan 14, 2021
Really suprised Hartford has 1 million, didnt even cross my mind because of the caveat. I guess Connecticut has such a high population density
SouthwestChief
+1
Level 73
Feb 25, 2021
Plus, the metro area reaches into Springfield.
IsleAuHaulte
+5
Level 92
Oct 18, 2022
Actually it doesn't. The Census Bureau is pretty arbitrary about which contiguous urban areas it combines.
IsleAuHaulte
+1
Level 92
Oct 18, 2022
Hartford and other older cities restricted to small boundaries get hampered in all sorts of ways, including statistics.

Hartford is technically penned into 17 square miles, while San Antonio gobbles up 500, Austin 320, Oklahoma City 600, etc. Such discrepancies even cause giant suburbs to be named the primary "city" instead of the established urban core, like Virginia Beach (Norfolk), Cape Coral (Fort Myers), San Jose (San Francisco)...

EileenDover
+1
Level 48
Feb 4, 2022
Is my brain square and I am just not getting it but places like Denver as of 2022 have a population of around ~700k and In the description it says only places with a population over 1 million
ericsp23
+6
Level 99
Oct 18, 2022
It's based on the metro area population, not the city proper. The Denver metro area population is almost 3M.
tykgoodey007
+2
Level 62
Jun 24, 2022
Can you accept St. Paul for Minneapolis?
xyzzy
+1
Level 72
Oct 19, 2022
They are two different cities.
SpencerGT
+8
Level 68
Oct 19, 2022
But they're twins.
cornflakesfu
+3
Level 89
Oct 19, 2022
And they (roughly equally, although MPLS is sliiiiightly bigger) both represent a single metropolitan area.
loganite
+3
Level 94
Oct 19, 2022
Was surprised by Hartford. I didn't try any Connecticut cities, figuring they would either be included in the New York or Boston metro areas or wouldn't be big enough.
ing
+6
Level 73
Oct 30, 2022
When I think of Baltimore, I'm not thinking "fabulously wealthy."
bestanford
+13
Level 73
Nov 23, 2022
Maryland suburbs are super rich off of DC money. Baltimore city itself is just kind of... there.
fuanacdc
+1
Level 89
Jan 19, 2023
I'm not thinking wealthy when I think of DC either. Must be offset by politicians having residences there.
Quizmaster
+5
Level ∞
Dec 19, 2025
The small amount of politicians living in DC/Baltimore don't move the needle.

It's the millions of federal employees and contractors who make very high wages compared to the national average.

SpencerGT
+2
Level 68
Jan 18, 2026
I doubt that there are millions of contractors in one metropolitan area.
ferdy86
+1
Level 77
Nov 24, 2022
I thought San Jose was considered part of the San Francisco metro area?
Damangio
+1
Level 64
Nov 24, 2022
I thought so too. It was helpful that the CSAs are color-coded; otherwise I wouldn't have guessed San Jose at all.
JeromesNiece
+8
Level 77
Jan 22, 2023
In order to adjust for differences in costs of living, I divided each metro area's median household income by its AdvisorSmith City Cost of Living Index (and re-normalized by multiplying by 100).

Here are the richest metro areas by cost-of-living-adjusted median household income (1m+ population metros only):

1. Washington, DC ($91,886)

2. Raleigh ($85,560)

3. Sacramento ($84,384)

4. Minneapolis ($82,954)

5. Seattle ($81,638)

6. Austin ($81,173)

7. Denver ($80,924)

8. Kansas City ($80,677)

9. Baltimore ($80,656)

10. San Jose ($80,629)

11. Hartford ($78,490)

12. St. Louis ($78,336)

13. Chicago ($78,088)

14. Indianapolis ($77,854)

15. Philadelphia ($77,376)

16. Atlanta ($77,357)

17. Dallas ($77,132)

18. Grand Rapids, MI ($76,856)

19. Salt Lake City ($76,777)

20. Cincinnati ($76,643)

JeromesNiece
+8
Level 77
Jan 22, 2023
And the poorest:

1. Honolulu ($57,408)

2. Miami ($57,960)

3. Los Angeles ($58,679)

4. Fresno ($60,110)

5. New Orleans ($61,512)

6. Tampa ($62,082)

7. Tucson ($62,095)

8. Las Vegas ($63,234)

9. Memphis ($63,311)

10. Orlando ($64,039)

11. Buffalo ($64,536)

12. San Francisco ($64,952)

13. New York City ($65,945)

14. Providence ($66,178)

15. Riverside ($66,338)

16. San Diego ($66,816)

17. Birmingham ($66,951)

18. Tulsa ($68,854)

19. Rochester, NY ($68,857)

20. Jacksonville ($69,085)

JeromesNiece
+6
Level 77
Jan 22, 2023
Full data here
TheQuizzler
+1
Level 63
Mar 12, 2024
Really interesting. I live in one of the top five listed locations, and I can tell you even here it's not that great. We're all just really pretty screwed then it would seem. :(
Quizmaster
+8
Level ∞
Mar 12, 2024
You should definitely spend some time in Africa or India. It will radically changed your perspective.
TheQuizzler
+1
Level 63
Jan 29, 2026
I have been twice actually. My original comment wasn't meant to communicate that it's among the worst in the world, just that it isn't as great where I am at as some people might think based on the data above.
Quizmaster
+2
Level ∞
Dec 19, 2025
The median in San Jose would be pretty close to 99th percentile in France. Crazy.
BolyaiAnna
+7
Level 87
Dec 19, 2025
except we don't have student loans, or hospital bills, among others :) not saying it's great here, in fact it's getting worse due to neoliberal politics destroying public services, but I'd much rather get paid less and have everything covered
Quizmaster
+2
Level ∞
Dec 19, 2025
Agree that steelman of France is better than strawman of United States.
Constantinos
+1
Level 75
Dec 19, 2025
Why Chicago isn't up there?
Quizmaster
+2
Level ∞
Dec 19, 2025
Crime, corruption, industry leaving, productive citizens leaving, etc...

Detroit was the richest city in the United States at one point. Chicago seems like it wants to go the same direction.

BillShep1230
+3
Level 79
Dec 19, 2025
There is a decent amount of investment in skyscrapers/Business in the loop right now. Plus the new stadium for the soccer team. Is Chicago perfect, nope, but it has a worse rep than it actually is. I don’t think it’s going to drop dead like Detroit did. Too much diversity in industry for it to collapse. I’m not shocked it’s not on the list, just like Houston or Miami. Some super poor areas in all 3 cities really bring down the stats.
Quizmaster
+2
Level ∞
Dec 19, 2025
But Miami and Houston were never on the list.

Chicago was on the list until very recently. Now they are getting lapped by former backwaters like Atlanta, Austin, and Raleigh. It's very concerning.

Agree that diversity of industry makes Chicago less vulnerable than Detroit.

NattKing
+1
Level 75
Dec 19, 2025
Argh, I always miss these small towns like New York City.
IridiumPingo
+1
Level 39
Dec 19, 2025
Portland ME or Portland OR
EvanAviator
+5
Level 61
Dec 24, 2025
do you think the portland maine metro area has one million people
RoboquizM86
+1
Level 61
Jan 15, 2026
Wow I got 13/20 not bad at all seeing as I guessed all of them with the only USA cities I know
chailattee
+1
Level 68
Jan 15, 2026
Accept San Bernardino for Riverside?
cfreddy
+1
Level 28
Jan 16, 2026
Is that considered part of Riverside metro area?
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