The chart above shows the net worth of the billionaires of each state divided by the population of said state. Wyoming has more than double per capita net worth of billionaires of the next leading state.
Findings
- The difference between the state with the highest per total capita net worth, Wyoming, and the state with the lowest (that has billionaires), Romania, is $103,206.50.
- Wyoming has 1,930.42 times the per total capita billionaire net worth that Romania does.
- The difference between the US state with the highest per total capita net worth, Wyoming, and the EU state with the highest, Cyprus, is $82,317.73.
- Wyoming has 4.93 times the per total capita billionaire net worth that Cyprus does.
- The median per total capita net worth of billionaires in the 28 EU states is $821 and the mean $3,098.
- The median per total capita net worth of billionaires in the 20 EU states that do have billionaires is $2,867.79 and the mean $4,337.27.
- The median per total capita net worth of billionaires in the 50 US states is $4,006.40 and the mean $9,931.90.
- The median per total capita net worth of billionaires in the 42 US states that do have billionaires is $4,579.00 and the mean $11,823.70.
- The median per total capita net worth of billionaires in the 78 EU and US states is $2,839.10 and the mean $7,478.70.
- The median per total capita net worth of billionaires in the 62 EU and US states that do have billionaires is $4,080.71 and the mean $9,408.71.
Caveats
- Billionaire data is from 2018.
- EU population data is from 2011; US population data is from 2010.
- All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
- Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Vermont do not have a single billionaire.
- Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, and Slovenia do not have a single billionaire.
Details
California which has the highest billionaire net worth overall, ranks ninth when its population is taken into account. The other two leaders in the overall metric, Germany and New York, rank 23rd and fifth in this metric, respectively. The leader in this metric, Wyoming, ranks 18th when it comes to total net worth of billionaires.
Wyoming is the only state whose billionaires net worth, if distributed equally among the state's entire population would result in a net worth of over $100,000 for every resident in the state. An additional five states have a per capita net worth of over $25,000 (in descending order of net worth): Nebraska, Washington, Arkansas, New York, and Nevada. Obviously, states with small populations will fare better in this metric.
Only Washington and New York rank in the top five in both the overall metric and the per capita metric. California is the only other state to rank in the top ten in both metrics. Sweden is the best performing EU state ranking in the top 15 in both metrics.
Twelve states' billionaires net worth is not enough to equal more than $1,000 per citizen of their state. Five are from the US and seven are from the EU.
Of the eight states with a population over 25 million, only California has a billionaires' per total capita net worth of over $10,000. On the other end of the spectrum, Poland has a billionaires' per total capita net worth of under $500.
Of the seven states whose billionaires have a total net worth of over $200 billion, only Washington has a billionaires' per total capita net worth of over $40,000. California and New York are the only other two with a figure over $10,000.
Cyprus rises the most spots when comparing billionaires' net worth per total capita to billionaires' net worth. It ranks 39th in billionaires' net worth, but rises up to eighth when its population is taken into account, thus rising 31 spots. On the other end, the United Kingdom and Italy drop the most as they rank seventh and ninth respectively in billionaires' net worth but only 35th and 37th respectively when their population is taken into account, thus each dropping 28 spots.
Sources
Eurostat. 2017. "Population on 1 January by Age Groups and Sex - Functional Urban Areas." Accessed December 11, 2017. http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=urb_lpop1&lang=en.
Forbes. 2018. "The World's Billionaires List." Accessed October 2, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/21/#version:static.
United States Census Bureau. September 2012. "United States Summary: 2010: Population and Housing Unit Counts." Accessed January 23, 2018. https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/cph-2-1.pdf.