This State Has More Millionaires Per Capita Than Any Other

America is often described as a patchwork of cultures and economic strata, which is another way of saying that prosperity clusters in certain states far more than in others. The result is a wide gap between states when it comes to how many wealthy households call them home.

Some U.S. states have dramatically more millionaire households than others. Narrowing down the data makes it possible to identify the single state with the greatest millionaire density: the highest share of million-dollar-net-worth households relative to its total number of households.

The question is a genuinely interesting one. Where do the most millionaires actually live in America? What draws so many high-net-worth households to a single state? The seemingly obvious candidates would be California, New York, or Connecticut. The correct answer is likely to surprise you.

Lush Wealth in the Garden State

The American state with the most millionaires per capita is New Jersey. According to Statista research published in August 2024, the Garden State had roughly 246,000 households with a net worth of at least $1 million, translating to 9.76% of all New Jersey households. California and New York both have far larger absolute counts of millionaire households, but their enormous populations dilute those numbers on a per-capita basis.

New Jersey’s lead is narrow rather than commanding. Maryland finished second with 9.72% of households crossing the million-dollar threshold, while Connecticut came in third at 9.44%. Still, the Garden State beat 49 others to claim the top spot, including several states that are widely assumed to be wealth magnets.

Whether being millionaire-dense actually makes New Jersey millionaire-friendly is a more complicated question. The answer is not a clean yes.

Geography Attracts Prosperity

Real estate professionals often say the three most important factors in property value are location, location, location. For New Jersey, that axiom applies at the state level.

New Jersey is home to 15 Fortune 500 companies on the 2026 list, including Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ | JNJ Price Prediction), Merck (NYSE:MRK), and Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY). For executives and senior professionals in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, New Jersey is a practical home base: close to major employers, yet outside New York City proper.

That proximity to New York City is itself a central draw. The state sits close enough to Manhattan to keep commuting viable, while offering a quieter suburban life that a Manhattan high-rise simply cannot provide. New Jersey delivers many of the cultural and economic benefits of a major metropolitan area without requiring residents to actually live inside one. For a high-net-worth household seeking space, calm, and room to raise a family, that trade-off is often compelling.

Property values add another layer. New Jersey carries the nation’s highest effective property tax rate, at 2.23% of home value according to the Tax Foundation, and the average annual property tax bill hit a record $10,095 in 2024. Those bills are painful, but the same elevated valuations push homeowners’ net worth upward, particularly for households that have held property for decades. Wealth accumulates in the state partly because real estate appreciation inflates it.

A Taxing Financial Issue

Despite its millionaire-density title, New Jersey’s tax environment presents a genuine challenge for wealthy residents, and recent policy changes have sharpened that pressure considerably.

Since 2020, any New Jersey resident with annual taxable income exceeding $1 million has faced what is informally called a “millionaire’s tax,” with a state income tax rate of 10.75% on those earnings. That rate covers income between $1 million and $5 million; income above $5 million was already taxed at 10.75% before the 2020 expansion took effect.

The burden on real estate transactions has grown as well. Legislation signed by Governor Murphy on June 30, 2025, and effective July 10, 2025, overhauled the state’s “mansion tax” in two significant ways. Payment shifted from buyers to sellers, and the old flat 1% rate gave way to a tiered structure: sellers pay 1% on properties between $1 million and $2 million, with rates stepping up progressively to a cap of 3.5% on sales above $3.5 million. The updated tax is projected to generate more than $550 million annually for state programs.

Tax pressure is already visible in migration patterns. IRS filings show New Jersey lost $2.6 billion in adjusted gross income to interstate migration during the 2022-2023 period. Between 2020 and 2024, a net 192,209 New Jersey residents relocated to other states, representing the fourth-worst domestic outmigration in the country, behind only California, New York, and Illinois. Florida and Texas, both with no state income tax, are the top destinations for departing wealth.

Millionaires are not flocking to New Jersey for its tax climate. Many stay because of family ties, career anchors, and unmatched access to the New York City metro. Others are quietly recalculating whether the trade-off remains worthwhile. For now, the Garden State holds its title as America’s most millionaire-dense state, but the forces working against that standing are real and accelerating.

Editor’s note: This pass updated the Fortune 500 reference to reflect the 2026 list, on which New Jersey claims 15 companies, and added Tax Foundation data confirming New Jersey holds the nation’s highest effective property tax rate at 2.23%, with the average annual bill reaching a record $10,095 in 2024.

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