In 20212, the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area in California had the highest per capita income at 64,169 U.S. dollars. The second highest, San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley metro area is also located in California.

Graph and download economic data for 90% Confidence Interval Upper Bound of Estimate of Median Household Income for Alameda County, CA (MHICIUBCA06001A052NCEN) from 1989 to 2023 about Alameda County, CA; San Francisco; CA; households; median; income; and USA.

Graph and download economic data for 90% Confidence Interval Upper Bound of Estimate of Median Household Income for San Mateo County, CA (MHICIUBCA06081A052NCEN) from 1989 to 2023 about San Mateo County, CA; San Francisco; CA; households; median; income; and USA.

Graph and download economic data for 90% Confidence Interval Upper Bound of Estimate of Median Household Income for Butte County, CA (MHICIUBCA06007A052NCEN) from 1989 to 2023 about Butte County, CA; Chico; CA; households; median; income; and USA.

In 2022, San Francisco had the highest median household income of cities ranking within the top 25 in terms of population, with a median household income in of 136,692 U.S. dollars. In that year, San Jose in California was ranked second, and Seattle, Washington third.

Following a fall after the great recession, median household income in the United States has been increasing in recent years. As of 2022, median household income by state was highest in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Utah, and Massachusetts. It was lowest in Mississippi, West Virginia, and Arkansas. Families with an annual income of 25,000 and 49,999 U.S. dollars made up the largest income bracket in America, with about 25.26 million households.

Data on median household income can be compared to statistics on personal income in the U.S. released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal income rose to around 21.8 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022, the highest value recorded. Personal income is a measure of the total income received by persons from all sources, while median household income is “the amount with divides the income distribution into two equal groups,” according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Half of the population in question lives above median income and half lives below. Though total personal income has increased in recent years, this wealth is not distributed throughout the population. In practical terms, income of most households has decreased. One additional statistic illustrates this disparity: for the lowest quintile of workers, mean household income has remained more or less steady for the past decade at about 13 to 16 thousand constant U.S. dollars annually. Meanwhile, income for the top five percent of workers has actually risen from about 285,000 U.S. dollars in 1990 to about 499,900 U.S. dollars in 2020.

Definitions:Urban: Contiguous urban census tracts with a population of 50,000 or greater. Urban census tracts are tracts where at least 10 percent of the tract's land areas is designated as urban by the Census Bureau using the 2020 urbanized area criteria.Rural Center: Contiguous urban census tracts with a population of less than 50,000. Urban census tracts are tracts where at least 10 percent of the tract's land area is designated as urban by the Census Bureau using the 2020 urbanized area criteria.Rural: Census tracts where less than 10 percent of the tract's land area is designated as urban by the Census Bureau using the 2020 urbanized area criteria.Disadvantaged Community (DAC): Census tracts that score within the top 25th percentile of the Office of Environmental Health Hazards Assessment’s California Communities Environmental Health Screening Tool (CalEnviroScreen) 4.0 scores, as well as areas of high pollution and low population, such as ports.Low-income Community (LIC): Census tracts with median household incomes at or below 80 percent of the statewide median income or with median household incomes at or below the threshold designated as low income by the Department of Housing and Community Development’s list of state income limits adopted pursuant to Section 50093 of the California Health and Safety Code.Middle-income Community (MIC): Census tracts with median household incomes between 80 to 120 percent of the statewide median income, or with median household incomes between the threshold designated as low- and moderate-income by the Department of Housing and Community Development’s list of state income limits adopted pursuant to section 50093 of the California Health and Safety Code. High-income Community (HIC): Census tracts with median household income at or above 120 percent of the statewide median income or with median household incomes at or above the threshold designated as moderate-income by the Department of Housing and Community Development’s list of state income limits adopted pursuant to section 50093 of the California Health and Safety Code.Data Dictionary:ObjectID1_: Unique IDShape: Geometric form of the featureSTATEFP: State FIPS CodeCOUNTYFP: County FIPS CodeCOUNTY: County NameTract: Census Tract IDPopulation_2019_5YR: Population from the American Community Survey 2019 5-Year EstimatesPop_dens: Census tract designation as Urban, Rural Center, or RuralDAC: Census tract designation as Disadvantaged or not (DAC or Not DAC)Income_Group: Census tract designation as Low-, Middle-, or High-income Community (LIC, MIC, or HIC)Priority_pop: Census tract designation as Low-income and/or Disadvantaged or not (LIC and/or DAC, or Not LIC and/or DAC)Shape_Length: Census tract shape area (square meters)Shape_Area: Census tract shape length (square meters)Data sources:Urban, rural center, and rural designations are from the 2025 Senate Bill (SB) 1000 AssessmentDisadvantaged community designations are from the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) under Senate Bill (SB) 535Low-income community designations are from the California Air Resources Board under Assembly Bill (AB) 1550. Middle- and high-income designations are from the SB 1000 Assessments.

Out of all 50 states, New York had the highest per-capita real gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023, at 90,730 U.S. dollars, followed closely by Massachusetts. Mississippi had the lowest per-capita real GDP, at 39,102 U.S. dollars. While not a state, the District of Columbia had a per capita GDP of more than 214,000 U.S. dollars. What is real GDP? A country’s real GDP is a measure that shows the value of the goods and services produced by an economy and is adjusted for inflation. The real GDP of a country helps economists to see the health of a country’s economy and its standard of living. Downturns in GDP growth can indicate financial difficulties, such as the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, when the U.S. GDP decreased by 2.5 percent. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on U.S. GDP, shrinking the economy 2.8 percent. The U.S. economy rebounded in 2021, however, growing by nearly six percent. Why real GDP per capita matters Real GDP per capita takes the GDP of a country, state, or metropolitan area and divides it by the number of people in that area. Some argue that per-capita GDP is more important than the GDP of a country, as it is a good indicator of whether or not the country’s population is getting wealthier, thus increasing the standard of living in that area. The best measure of standard of living when comparing across countries is thought to be GDP per capita at purchasing power parity (PPP) which uses the prices of specific goods to compare the absolute purchasing power of a countries currency.

Graph and download economic data for 90% Confidence Interval Upper Bound of Estimate of Median Household Income for San Francisco County/City, CA (MHICIUBCA06075A052NCEN) from 1989 to 2023 about San Francisco County/City, CA; San Francisco; CA; households; median; income; and USA.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of California was about 3.23 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023, meaning that it contributed the most out of any state to the country’s GDP in that year. In contrast, Vermont had the lowest GDP in the United States, with 35.07 billion U.S. dollars. What is GDP? Gross domestic product, or GDP, is the total monetary value of all goods and services produced by an economy within a certain time period. GDP is used by economists to determine the economic health of an area, as well as to determine the size of the economy. GDP can be determined for countries, states and provinces, and metropolitan areas. While GDP is a good measure of the absolute size of a country's economy and economic activity, it does account for many other factors, making it a poor indicator for measuring the cost or standard of living in a country, or for making cross-country comparisons. GDP of the United States The United States has the largest gross domestic product in the world as of 2023, with China, Japan, Germany, and India rounding out the top five. The GDP of the United States has almost quadrupled since 1990, when it was about 5.9 trillion U.S. dollars, to about 25.46 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022.

This layer shows census tracts that meet the following definitions: Census tracts with median household incomes at or below 80 percent of the statewide median income or with median household incomes at or below the threshold designated as low income by the Department of Housing and Community Development’s list of state income limits adopted under Healthy and Safety Code section 50093 and/or Census tracts receiving the highest 25 percent of overall scores in CalEnviroScreen 4.0 or Census tracts lacking overall scores in CalEnviroScreen 4.0 due to data gaps, but receiving the highest 5 percent of CalEnviroScreen 4.0 cumulative population burden scores or Census tracts identified in the 2017 DAC designation as disadvantaged, regardless of their scores in CalEnviroScreen 4.0 or Lands under the control of federally recognized Tribes.Data downloaded in May 2022 from https://webmaps.arb.ca.gov/PriorityPopulations/.

In 2023, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara Metro area in California was ranked first with median household income of 153,202 U.S. dollars. The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro area had a median household income of 121,469 U.S. dollars.

Graph and download economic data for 90% Confidence Interval Upper Bound of Estimate of Median Household Income for Marin County, CA (MHICIUBCA06041A052NCEN) from 1989 to 2023 about Marin County, CA; San Francisco; CA; households; median; income; and USA.

A dataset listing the 20 richest cities in California for 2024, including information on rank, city, county, population, average income, and median income.

Graph and download economic data for 90% Confidence Interval Upper Bound of Estimate of Median Household Income for Santa Clara County, CA (MHICIUBCA06085A052NCEN) from 1989 to 2023 about Santa Clara County, CA; San Jose; CA; households; median; income; and USA.

In 2023, the real GDP of the Los Angeles metro area amount to around 1.08 trillion U.S. dollars, and increase after 2021. The overall quarterly GDP growth in the United States can be found here. Gross domestic product of Los AngelesWith a population of over 12.8 million inhabitants in 2023, Los Angeles is the second-largest city in America, following only New York. The Los Angeles metro area also ranked second among U.S. metro areas in terms of gross metropolitan product, second again only to New York City metro area, which came in with a GMP of 1.99 trillion U.S. dollars to Los Angeles’ 1.13 trillion U.S. dollars in the fiscal year of 2021. Chicago metro area ranked third with GMP of 757.2 billion U.S. dollars. Additional detailed statistics about GDP in the United States is available here. Despite Los Angeles’ high GDP, L.A. did not do as well as some cities in terms of median household income. Los Angeles ranked 9th with a median household income of 76,135 U.S. dollars annually in 2022. This was slightly higher than the median household income of the United States in 2022, which came in at 74,580 U.S. dollars annually. Located in Southern California, Los Angeles is home to Hollywood, the famous epicenter of the U.S. film and television industries. The United States is one of the leading film markets worldwide, producing 449 films in 2022, many of them produced by Hollywood-based studios. In 2018, movie ticket sales in North America generated over 11.89 billion U.S. dollars in box office revenue. Famous Hollywood actresses earn millions annually, with the best paid, Sofia Vergara, earning 43 million U.S. dollars in 2020. Second on the list was Angelina Jolie with earnings of 35.5 million U.S. dollars.

This graph shows the GDP of the Los Angeles metro area in 2022, by industry. In 2022, its GDP amounted to about 1.06 trillion U.S. dollars. About 99.2 billion U.S. dollars were generated by the manufacturing industry. The overall quarterly GDP growth in the United States can be found here.

Gross domestic product of Los Angeles

With a population of over 3.9 million inhabitants in 2011, Los Angeles is the second largest city in America, following only New York. The Los Angeles metro area also ranked second among U.S. metro areas in terms of gross metropolitan product, second again only to New York City metro area, which came in with a GMP of USD 1.287 trillion to Los Angeles’ 755 billion USD in 2011. Chicago metro area ranked third with GMP of 547 billion U.S. dollars. Washington metro area ranked fourth with 434 billion U.S. dollars in 2011. Additional detailed statistics about GDP and GMP in the United States is available here.

Despite Los Angeles’ high GDP, L.A. did not do as well as some cities in terms of median household income. Los Angeles ranked 11th with a median household income of 48,466 U.S. dollars annually in 2013. This was lower than the median household income of the United States in 2013, which came in at 51,939 U.S. dollars annually.

Located in Southern California, Los Angeles is home to Hollywood, the famous epicenter of the U.S. film and television industries. The United States is one of the leading film markets worldwide, producing 817 films in 2011, many of them produced by Hollywood-based studios. In 2012, movie ticket sales in North America generated over 10.8 billion U.S. dollars in box office revenue. Famous Hollywood actresses earn millions annually, with the best paid, Angelina Jolie, earning 33 million U.S. dollars between June 2012 and June 2013. Second on the list was Jennifer Lawrence with earnings of 26 million U.S. dollars.

In 2022, the Midland metro area in Texas had the highest per capita personal income in the United States. This was followed by the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metropolitan area in California.

Graph and download economic data for 90% Confidence Interval Upper Bound of Estimate of Median Household Income for Los Angeles County, CA (MHICIUBCA06037A052NCEN) from 1989 to 2023 about Los Angeles County, CA; Los Angeles; CA; households; median; income; and USA.

Of the most populous cities in the U.S., San Jose, California had the highest annual income requirement at ******* U.S. dollars annually for homeowners to have an affordable and comfortable life in 2024. This can be compared to Houston, Texas, where homeowners needed an annual income of ****** U.S. dollars in 2024.

In 2021, Midland metropolitan area in Texas had a per capita real GDP of about 227,765 chained U.S. dollars, the highest of any metro area in the United States. The San-Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara and San Francisco-Oakland-Berkely metro areas in California also had high real GDP per capita. The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro area in Washington state and the Trenton-Princeton metro area in New Jersey round out the top five. Only the top 100 metro areas by GDP per capita are shown here.