BOSTON, MA — A new report has crunched numbers to determine how much money you need to make to be considered “rich” in Boston. Spoiler alert: most journalists don't come close. Business Insider looked at several factors in 42 of the countries largest cities to determine what income residents need to be considered above-middle-class.
About one in five Americans is considered upper-income, meaning they earned at least twice the national median household income of $59,039 in 2016, according to the Pew Research Center. Business Insider says that overall in the U.S., you’d have to earn $118,080 to be rich.
But that isn’t true for many cities, including Boston, where that number is actually (you guessed it) higher. Boston's median income is higher than New York and Seattle, but just under that of San Francisco.
Here's how Boston stacks up against those a few of those cities we think of as pretty expensive:
Boston
Compared to Memphis, Tennessee, where residents must earn at least $99,618 to be rich, that might seem steep. But at least we’re not San Jose, California.
In San Jose, residents have to earn a whopping $220,080 or more to be considered rich.
Here are some other cities on the list:
New York City
Seattle
San Francisco
Click here to read the full report.
Patch reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this report.
Photo credit: Jenna Fisher/Patch
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