Households In Richest County In Missouri Rake In $78,380 Per Year

ST. CHARLES, MO — It’s not uncommon to find a dog wearing a sweater in America. But you might look twice if that pooch is wearing Prada. And while we’re not dogging all the stylish Scotties out there, a new report suggests you might find them in St. Charles County, which was just named the richest county in Missouri

The typical household in the county rakes in about $78,380 a year, according to a report published last week by the financial news and opinion site 24/7 Wall St. That’s about $26,800 more than the typical Missouri household, the authors found.

Here’s what the authors had to say:

St. Charles County is a wealthy county just outside of St. Louis. The area’s $78,380 median annual household income is more than 50% higher than Missouri’s median income. Missouri has a an unemployment rate of more than 3%, but St. Charles County’s unemployment rate is much lower, at 1.9%.

Statewide, 28.2% of Missouri adults hold at least a bachelor’s degree. In St. Charles County, 37.1% of adults have at least a four-year degree. This high level of educations allows county residents to qualify for more highly specialized positions.

Across the country, the typical household in the wealthiest counties earned between $58,000 and $130,000 a year, with Loudoun County, Virginia, coming in as the richest county in America. The authors said Loudoun’s proximity to Washington, D.C., and access to “countless jobs” help bolster its strong unemployment rate of just 2.3 percent, well below the national rate of 3.8 percent. Moreover, many of those jobs are high-skilled and high-paying.

About 60 percent of adults in Loudoun County have earned at least a bachelor’s degree — about twice as many as the country overall — and the typical household earns about $130,000 a year, the highest income of any county by more than $12,000.

Other counties in the six-figure income club include Howard County, Maryland ($115,576); Douglas County, Colorado ($111,154); Hunterdon County, New Jersey ($110,969); Los Alamos County, New Mexico ($110,190); Santa Clara County, California ($106,761); Nassau County, New York ($105,744); Williamson County, Tennessee ($103,543); and Delaware County, Ohio ($100,229).

Meanwhile, Arizona’s Maricopa County earned the lowest amount out of all the wealthiest counties at $58,580. That’s about $5,000 more than what the typical Arizona household earns. Interestingly, Maricopa County is actually the only Arizona county that earns more than the national median of $58,580.

“While it is the wealthiest in the state, the county’s median of $58,580 is only slightly higher than that of the nation,” the authors noted.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

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