Washington Is Full of Millionaires, Survey Says

Maryland leads all states in the percentage of households with at least $1 million in assets, according to a new report by a marketing firm, and Virginia and the District also land in the Top 10. The report, published by Phoenix Marketing International, finds 7.67 percent of Maryland’s 2,220,791 households were worth more than $1 million in 2014, making it the second year in a row that the state topped the chart.

Virginia is not far behind at No. 6, with 214,361 households, or 6.76 percent of the commonwealth, in seven figures, while DC lands in tenth place, with 18,267 of its 292,398 households, or 6.25 percent, having more than $1 million in the bank.

Other recent studies of Washington-area households’ net worth suggest similar results to what Phoenix Marketing says. Washington Business Journal reported last October that the region’s median household net worth clocked in at $188,921, well above figures in the Boston and Philadelphia areas, according to data collected by the mapping software company Esri.

Phoenix Marketing says there are higher concentrations of millionaires in smaller states clustered around metropolitan areas and in larger states with highly diversified economies, and the listing of states is largely consistent with that reading. After Maryland, Connecticut and New Jersey rank second and third, while Massachusetts is seventh. Washington’s economy is not actually that diverse, with the federal government accounting for 39.8 percent of the region’s economic activity in 2010. But the area is projected to become less government-dependent over time; Stephen Fuller of the Center for Regional Analysis, a George Mason University think tank, predicts that by 2019, the federal government’s share of the local economy will shrink to just 28.8 percent.

Benjamin Freed

Staff Writer

Benjamin Freed joined Washingtonian in August 2013 and covers politics, business, and media. He was previously the editor of DCist and has also written for Washington City Paper, the New York Times, the New Republic, Slate, and BuzzFeed. He lives in Adams Morgan.