Business
Where the rich people live
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13 Feb 2013
- Written by Steve Hargreaves/CNNMoney
Despite all the talk of urban revitalization, suburbs still have a denser concentration of rich people than cities.
In America's suburbs, just over 6 percent of the households have incomes that put them in the top sliver of American earners, according to a study released Monday by the U.S. Census Bureau. In city centers, less than 5 percent of households made the cut.
Not surprisingly, the study found that rich people tend to live near major population centers.
The Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk area of Connecticut, a region just north of New York City that's home to many a hedge fund, has the highest concentration of wealthy households in the country -- 17.9% of those in the area bring in more than $191,469 per year. That compares to 5% of households nationwide, according to the Census Bureau.
Southern Connecticut was followed closely by the tech-heavy San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara region in California that's known as Silicon Valley. The Washington, D.C.-Arlington-Alexandria area came in third.
At the opposite end of the spectrum are mostly rural regions. Two statistical areas with the same name tied for having the lowest concentration of rich people – Danville, Ill., and Danville Va. – at 1.1 percent. Pine Bluff, Ark.; Steubenville, Ohio-Weirton, W.Va.; and Muskegon-Norton Shores, Mich. rounded out the bottom five.
Areas that fell outside the norm included regions in the country currently undergoing an energy boom. Counties near North Dakota's Bakken Shale, Colorado's Niobrara and Texas' Eagle Ford all had high concentrations of wealth.
The study did not take into account cost of living, which can significantly reduce or boost buying power in an area.
