Maryland No. 1 For Millionaires In U.S. Wealth Ranking

The divide between the haves and have-nots has grown over the past decade, and Maryland has the largest gap in the country, according to a recent analysis. The number of millionaire households in the United States has grown by more than 800,000 over the past five years and by more than 1.3 million since 2006, says the annual Wealth & Affluent Monitor published by Phoenix Marketing International.

Maryland has a total of 2,237,507 households and the state has a 7.70 percent ratio of millionaires to households, the marketing research report says.

“The trends we’ve seen over the past 10 years show a deeper and wider wealth divide as families in the near- and emerging affluent segments fall further behind financially,” said David Thompson, managing director of affluent practice, at Phoenix Marketing International.

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The ratio of millionaires to total American households has remained relatively flat and wealth is more concentrated and shifting geographically, says the PMI analysis. Nearly 6.8 million U.S. households had $1 million or more in investable assets, which is a 4 percent increase in the number of millionaire households from the previous year, the report says.

The 2016 Phoenix Wealth & Affluent Monitor shows few changes in the top 10 states ranked by the ratio of millionaire households to total households. The top state rankings of millionaires are:

• Maryland (7.55%) – remained #1, where it has been since 2011
• Connecticut (7.4%) – remained #2, unchanged in 2016
• New Jersey (7.39%) – moved up one place in 2016
• Hawaii (7.35%) – declined one place in 2016
• Alaska (7.15%) – unchanged from 2015
• Massachusetts (6.98%) – up one place from 2015
• New Hampshire (6.82%) – up one place from 2015
• Virginia (6.64%) – unchanged from 2015
• District of Colombia (6.32%) – up one place from 2015
• Delaware (6.4%) – down one place in 2016

States with the biggest loss of wealth are New Mexico, South Dakota, Vermont and Maine.

Methodology

The Wealth & Affluent Monitor sizing estimates in the U.S. are developed using a combination of sources including the Survey of Consumer Finance as well as Nielsen-Claritas. The SCF provides the framework and allows us to determine the general distribution of households by their level of investable assets. Estimates are further refined using the age and income distributions provided by Claritas. Investable assets include education/custodial accounts, individually-owned retirement accounts, stocks, options, bonds, mutual funds, managed accounts, hedge funds, structured products, ETFs, cash accounts, annuities, and cash value life insurance policies.

Read the full analysis on the Phoenix Marketing International website.

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