The Highest Income Metro Areas in the U.S.

The median U.S. metropolitan area has a household income of $70,872. The metros below earn far more, and at the top, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara reaches $157,444, more than double the typical metro.

This ranking covers all 393 U.S. metropolitan areas and uses median household income from the American Community Survey.

Highest income

$157,444

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

Typical U.S. metro

$70,872

median household income

California metros in top 25

more than any other state

Lowest income metro

$20,400

Mayagüez, PR

Median Household Income, Top 15

What the List Shows

California owns the list. Eight of the top 25 are in California: San Jose, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Napa, Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, Santa Rosa, San Diego and Vallejo. The Bay Area alone accounts for the top two.

Tech and Government Drive the Top Three

San Jose ($157,444) and San Francisco ($133,780) are the centers of the U.S. technology industry. At #3, the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro ($123,896) is powered by federal government jobs and the contractors around them. It is also the wealthiest of the country's 10 largest metros.

Smaller Metros That Punch Above Their Weight

Several of the highest-income metros are small. Napa, California has just 136,070 residents but a median income of $108,970. Boulder, Colorado ($102,772) and Manchester-Nashua, New Hampshire ($100,436) also rank in the top 16. Provo-Orem-Lehi, Utah makes the top 25 at $96,745 while having a median age of 25.6, the youngest of any metro on the list.

Where the Biggest Metros Rank

New York, the largest metro in the country, ranks #22 at $97,334. Los Angeles ($93,525), Chicago ($88,850) and Dallas-Fort Worth ($87,155) all fall outside the top 25, showing how high costs and large, mixed economies spread incomes out.

Full Top 25

Select a metro area to see its zip codes, or a column heading to sort.

Rank	Metro area	Median income	Population	Median age
1	San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	$157,444	1,969,353	37.8
2	San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	$133,780	4,653,593	40.0
3	Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV	$123,896	6,263,796	37.9
4	Lexington Park, MD	$123,577	208,163	38.5
5	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	$112,594	4,021,467	37.4
6	Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH	$112,484	4,917,661	39.3
7	Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT	$111,656	947,528	41.0
8	Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA	$109,266	266,021	39.6
9	Napa, CA	$108,970	136,070	42.8
10	Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA	$107,327	838,259	39.4
11	Urban Honolulu, HI	$104,264	1,003,666	39.4
12	Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA	$102,840	485,642	42.7
13	Boulder, CO	$102,772	328,317	37.5
14	Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO	$102,339	2,977,085	37.2
15	San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA	$102,285	3,282,782	37.1
16	Manchester-Nashua, NH	$100,436	424,732	41.0
17	Vallejo, CA	$99,994	450,824	39.1
18	Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA	$98,546	276,581	39.9
19	Ogden, UT	$98,361	645,510	32.8
20	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI	$98,180	3,693,351	37.8
21	Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX	$97,638	2,357,497	35.9
22	New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ	$97,334	19,756,722	39.4
23	Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD	$97,300	2,839,409	38.9
24	Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie-Newburgh, NY	$96,912	700,984	39.3
25	Provo-Orem-Lehi, UT	$96,745	695,895	25.6

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the richest metro area in the U.S.?

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California, with a median household income of $157,444.

What is the median household income for a U.S. metro area?

The median across all 393 U.S. metropolitan areas is $70,872.

Which state has the most high-income metro areas?

California, with eight of the top 25.

How We Ranked These

We ranked all 393 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas by median household income from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey 5-year estimates.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Select any metro area to see its zip codes.