Which states have the highest percentage of households with incomes above $150000?
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Executive summary
The sources provided do not include a ready-made ranking of states by the share of households earning more than $150,000; however, multiple reputable data points allow a reasoned, evidence‑based inference: states that top lists for households earning above $200,000 and $300,000 — and states with the highest median household incomes — are almost certainly the states with the largest shares above the $150,000 threshold (for example Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland and New Jersey) [1] [2] [3].
1. What the data actually show and what it doesn’t: the reporting gap
The U.S. Census and related briefs provide underlying household income distributions, but the excerpts supplied here do not present a state-by-state table specifically for the >$150,000 bracket; the most directly relevant public summaries in the collection instead report state shares above $200,000 and $300,000 and state median household income rankings, which must be combined cautiously to answer the >$150,000 question [4] [5] [2] [1].
2. Which states appear at the top in higher brackets — the strongest signals
Massachusetts repeatedly appears as the leader in high‑income shares: it ranks highest for households above $200,000 (19.3% on ZipAtlas) and shows a very high share above $300,000 on World Population Review, making it the strongest candidate for the largest share above $150,000 [1] [2]. Connecticut and Maryland are also highlighted among the highest shares for the >300K bracket and are listed among high median‑income states, signaling large upper‑income cohorts that would exceed a $150K cutoff [2] [3].
3. Metropolitan concentration and coastal advantage: why these states dominate
Analysts in the dataset emphasize that high concentrations of professional, finance, tech and biotech jobs in and around major metropolitan areas produce larger shares of very high‑income households; World Population Review and ZipAtlas note that coastal states and high‑cost metros (New York City, Boston, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles) show elevated proportions of six‑figure households, a geographic pattern that supports the inference that states with big coastal metros — New Jersey, New York, California, Massachusetts — will rank near the top for >$150,000 too [6] [1] [2].
4. Median income corroboration: an overlapping signal
State median household income rankings provide corroborating context: states listed among the top medians — Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, Hawaii, California, New Hampshire, Washington, Colorado, Utah, Connecticut — are the places where a larger share of households cluster well above national medians, making them logical leaders in any >$150,000 bracket even when exact shares at that cutoff aren’t in the provided snippets [3].
5. Caveats, alternative interpretations and data limitations
This analysis is an informed inference because the supplied sources lack a direct, state-by-state percentage for households above $150,000; instead they report >$200K and >$300K shares and medians, and the Census briefs referenced contain the raw potential to compute exact >$150K shares but the specific tables were not excerpted here [4] [5]. Different methodologies (ACS versus adjusted annual dollars, year of estimate, and whether metropolitan enclaves are driving statewide averages) can shift rankings; for example, a state with a single very wealthy metro pocket can look richer in >200K and >300K slices even if a broader share at >$150K is closer to peers [6] [1].
6. Bottom line — the best-supported answer from these sources
Given the direct evidence on >$200K and >$300K shares and the concordant median‑income lists, the states most likely to have the highest percentage of households above $150,000 are Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, California and New York, with New Hampshire and other high‑median states (e.g., Washington, Colorado) also strong candidates; this ranking is the principled inference that follows from the available >$200K/>$300K metrics and median‑income data, but a precise state ranking at the $150,000 threshold would require the specific tables from the Census/ACS releases [1] [2] [3] [4].