Forbes: Richest Counties In U.S. Includes Howard County

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — Forbes has ranked Howard County among the richest counties in the U.S. for 2017. The magazine released its annual wealthiest counties list this week, and HoCo was the only Maryland jurisdiction to make the top 10. Its median household income of $110,224 landed its residents among the nation's richest, according to Forbes.

A neighboring state — Virginia — took up the first three slots on the Forbes list: No. 1 was Loudon County; No. 2 was Falls Church; and No. 3 was Fairfax County.

Here is what Forbes had to say about Howard County:

A constant on lists naming “Best Places To Live” and “Best Places to Raise a Family,” Howard County owes much of its steady affluence to the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. While the Physics Lab employs 5,000 residents, other major employers in the area are the Howard County Public School System, Verizon Wireless and Lorien Health Systems.

Related:

• Columbia is Best Place to Live in America for 2016: Money Magazine
• Ellicott City Named One Of The Best Places To Live In The USA For 2017

See the Forbes list of the 10 richest counties in the U.S. for 2017:

1. Loudoun County, Virginia
2. Falls Church, Virginia
3. Fairfax County, Virginia
4. Howard County, Maryland
5. Douglas County, Colorado
6. Los Alamos, New Mexico
7. Williamson County, Tennessee
8. Arlington County, Virginia
9. Hunterdon, County, New Jersey
10. Santa Clara County, California

A spokesman said Friday the magazine was using U.S. Census Bureau estimates from 2015.

Photo courtesy of Howard County.