How many people earn one million or more dollars per year in CA 2024
Executive summary
Available reporting does not give a single definitive count of Californians who earned $1 million or more in 2024; national IRS-based tallies show a sharp post‑pandemic rise in million‑dollar filers and state‑level snapshots and payroll studies offer partial, differing pictures (San Francisco Business Times: U.S. million‑dollar filers rose from 608,540 in 2020 to 873,670 in 2021) [1]. Payroll data from ADP gives city‑level prevalence (Bay Area: 0.54% of employees earned ≥$1 million in ADP’s July 2023–June 2024 window) but does not translate directly into a 2024 statewide headcount (Los Angeles Times reporting on ADP data) [2].
1. What national IRS counts show — and their limits for California
The San Francisco Business Times cites IRS‑derived national figures that million‑dollar tax filers jumped from 608,540 in 2020 to 873,670 in 2021, illustrating the post‑pandemic surge in high‑income tax filings [1]. Those IRS counts are useful for trend context but the cited story does not provide a direct breakdown for California in 2024; therefore the national figures cannot be used to state a precise 2024 California total without additional state‑specific IRS data that the provided sources do not include [1]. Available sources do not mention a published 2024 California‑specific IRS tally.
2. Payroll studies give metro snapshots, not a statewide census
ADP payroll analysis, reported by the Los Angeles Times, found that in the Bay Area 0.54% of employees earn at least $1 million based on payrolls from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024 — and that the Bay Area had 2% earning ≥$500k and 0.15% earning ≥$2M [2]. That study is a high‑frequency measure of W‑2 payrolls, capturing wages paid to employees but excluding important groups (many business owners, partnership K‑1 income, capital gains realized off payrolls) and so cannot be extrapolated into an authoritative statewide count without methodological caveats [2]. ADP’s metro sampling also showed wages concentrated in tech hubs, which biases any straight extrapolation to California as a whole [2].
3. State employee millionaires — real but tiny in number
California’s public payroll disclosures show a handful of state employees with total 2024 compensation above $1 million: the Sac Bee reports at least nine civil servants crossed the $1 million threshold in recent years and names specific pension fund executives and the CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost as million‑dollar earners in 2024 [3]. These named examples demonstrate that seven‑ to eight‑figure public salaries exist, but they represent a vanishingly small slice of million‑dollar earners statewide and cannot be conflated with a full statewide total [3].
4. The top‑1% threshold vs. raw millionaire counts — different questions
Multiple outlets report how much is required to be in the top 1% in California: GoBankingRates/other aggregations put the 2024 top‑1% household threshold around $1.05M–$1.1M and separate analyses give $1.072M or $1.1M depending on methodology (Axios, Desertsun, KRON4 summaries) [4] [5] [6]. Those thresholds indicate how rare seven‑figure incomes are, but they are not the same as counting how many people earned $1 million or more — thresholds tell you the cutoff, not the headcount above it [4] [5] [6].
5. Why exact statewide counts are hard to produce
Three structural issues block a clean 2024 California headcount in the provided reporting: IRS national series often reports at national level and lag years before releasing state tables [1]; payroll datasets (ADP) cover W‑2 wages over specific windows and may omit non‑payroll millionaires and realized capital gains [2]; disparate local reporting (state payroll disclosures, journalism) gives case studies but not a comprehensive census [3]. Available sources do not mention a single, contemporaneous California official tally for 2024 million‑dollar filers.
6. How to get a more definitive number (what reporters and analysts would seek next)
A reliable 2024 California count would require either IRS state‑level millionaire filer tables for the 2024 tax year, a full‑population analysis combining W‑2 payrolls, 1099/K and tax‑return data, or a peer‑reviewed estimate that reconciles payroll studies with capital‑gains‑heavy tax filings. The sources here point to where researchers should look (IRS tables behind the Business Times story, ADP payroll data for metro patterns, and State Controller disclosures for public employees) but none of them publish a single statewide 2024 number [1] [2] [3].
Bottom line: reporting shows a clear rise in million‑dollar filers nationally and concentrated pockets of million‑dollar wage earners in California metros and in a few public pay cases, but the provided sources do not contain a definitive, cited count of how many Californians earned $1 million+ in 2024 [1] [2] [3].