How much income does the household in the exact middle of the income distribution in your state earn in a year?
Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte and Joyce Ma tapped the results of the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey for 2024 to find out. They produced the following map to visualize what they found within the United States:
Conte summarizes where the highest and lowest incomes earned by the typical household in each state within the United States are to be found:
High-Earning States Concentrated on the Coasts
The states with the highest household earnings are heavily concentrated along the coasts, with Colorado being the highest-earning landlocked state at ninth on the list with $97,113. Utah is the next non-coastal state with a high level of household earnings at $96,658, ranking 10th overall.
The eight coastal states ahead of Colorado and Utah all had a median household income of at least $99,000, all at least 20% above the national median household income.
These coastal states benefit from robust technology, professional services, and government sectors that tend to offer higher-paying jobs, while also often having higher costs of living.
Southern States Lag Behind the National Median Income
States in the South continue to have many of the lowest household incomes in the U.S., often trailing significantly behind the national median of $81,604.
After Mississippi at $59,127, the next two lowest-earning states were West Virginia ($60,798) and Louisiana ($60,986).
Other states below $65,000 (20% below the national median) were Arkansas and Kentucky with $62,106 and $64,526 in median household income respectively.
While these figures are significantly below the national median, they do coincide with lower housing and living costs, providing a more balanced standard of living.
While not a state, Washington D.C. holds the top position, with a household at the 50th percentile in the nation's capitol collecting an annual income of $110,000. At the other extreme, a household in Mississippi, the lowest ranking state for median household income in 2024, earns $51,000 a year less.
References
Niccolo Conta and Joyce Ma. MiscMapped: Median Household Income by U.S. State. Visual Capitalist. [Online article]. 15 October 2025.
Labels: data visualization, median household income
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