DC, VA Millionaires: Commonwealth Loses Ground In Ranking

WASHINGTON, DC — America had 534,000 more millionaires in 2018 than it did in the year prior, according to a new report provided to Patch, and New Jersey has nudged out Maryland as the state with the most millionaires per capita for the first time in seven years. The District of Columbia ranked second on the annual Phoenix Wealth & Affluent Monitor, while Virginia ranked tenth.

In Virginia, there are 248,958 millionaire households, for a ratio to total households of 7.66 percent, according to the Phoenix Marketing International report that tracks high net-worth households. Our state slipped two places since 2017.

In Washington, D.C., there are 28,325 millionaire households, for a ratio to total households of 8.94 percent, according to the report. The District climbed nine places since 2017.

David M. Thompson, the managing director of the Phoenix Affluent Practice, told Patch there are always changes in how the states are ranked and Maryland’s slippage doesn’t necessarily mean the state has fewer millionaires. Instead, “it’s more that states like New Jersey, for example, pulled slightly ahead,” Thompson said, noting that the top 10 states are so close in millionaires per capita that the order can change in any given year.

Nationwide, the number of U.S. households with more than $1 million in assets rose to 7.7 million in 2018, according to the report. The report’s authors also said that since the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States has increased by more than 2 million.

In 2010, after dozens of major companies failed and America landed in one of the worst recessions in its history, Virginia had 180,638 millionaire households, for a ratio to total households of 5.94 percent, to rank No. 7 in the country. DC had 14,533 millionaire households, for a ratio to total households of 5.53 percent to rank No. 10 nationally.

Candy heiress Jacqueline Mars of The Plains consistently ranks as Virginia's wealthiest resident, according to Forbes and other sites. Her family founded the Mars candy company. She has an estimated net worth of $24 billion.

“The 7 percent rise in millionaire households in 2018 is the strongest rate of growth in that market since the financial downturn ten years ago,” Thompson said in a statement.

With a handful of exceptions, the top 10 states for millionaires were in the Northeast and the Beltway region, but Hawaii, California and Alaska also made the list.

The top 10 states for millionaires in 2018 were:

1. New Jersey
2. District of Columbia
3. Connecticut
4. Maryland
5. Massachusetts
6. Hawaii
7. New Hampshire
8. California
9. Alaska
10. Virginia

SEE ALSO:

• 4 Virginia Billionaires On Forbes List Of Richest Americans
  
• 6 Virginia Billionaires Make Forbes' 2018 List

The states with the least number of millionaires were mainly concentrated in the South and Southwest, again with some exceptions. They are (from least affluent to most affluent):

1. Mississippi
2. West Virginia
3. Arkansas
4. Kentucky
5. Idaho
6. Alabama
7. New Mexico
8. Oklahoma
9. Indiana
10. Montana

New to the top 10 this year was the District of Columbia, which rose nine places to No. 2. Delaware, which was among the top 10 states for millionaires in 2017, slipped to No. 16 this year.

The Wealth & Affluent Monitor rankings used a combination of data, including information from the Survey of Consumer Finance, which allowed the report’s authors to determine the general distribution of households by their level of investable assets. Phoenix Marketing International said the estimates were further refined with age and income distributions provided by Claritas, a Nielsen-owned company that collects demographic, lifestyle and behavioral data for marketing companies.

“Together, these inputs enable us to estimate the number of households by investable assets at a national level,” Phoenix Marketing International said in its report. “Formulas are then created by applying national estimates to closely linked variables developed by the Census This allows us to obtain estimates at smaller units of geography.”

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