Best and Worst States at Minting Millionaires Since the Financial Crisis

The 10-year bull market in stocks and longest economic expansion in U.S.

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The 10-year bull market in stocks and longest economic expansion in U.S. history have minted many a millionaire since the darkest days of the Great Recession.

A decade ago, less than 1 in 20, or 4.9%, of all U.S. households were considered to be millionaires, according to Phoenix Marketing International, which tracks the affluent market. That means they held at least $1 million in investable assets, such as cash, stocks, bonds and funds, among other types of investments. Real estate such as the family home, employer-sponsored retirement plans and business partnerships don’t count.

Cut to today, and 6.2% of all U.S. households are millionaires. In raw numbers, the nation’s ranks of millionaires grew by more than 2 million over the past 10 years.

Naturally, the gains haven’t been distributed evenly. Although every state and the District of Columbia has more millionaire households today than it did in 2008, some areas of the country are gaining millionaires as a percentage of total households at a much faster clip than others.

Kiplinger.com annually ranks all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., by their respective concentrations of millionaires. In the most recent tally, New Jersey leapfrogged long-time leader Maryland for the top spot. Nearly 9% of New Jersey households are millionaires vs. 8.9% for Maryland, which led the country in millionaires as a percentage of households from 2011 through 2017 before slipping to fourth place.

That got us thinking: How have state millionaire concentrations shifted since the financial crisis? Here, we look at the five best states that have risen through the millionaire rankings since the Great Recession … and the five that have experienced the biggest dropoffs.

Disclaimer

Data provided by Phoenix Marketing International, U.S. Census Bureau and St. Louis Federal Reserve. Ranking changes based on data between 2008 and 2018.

Dan Burrows
Senior Investing Writer, Kiplinger.com

Dan Burrows is Kiplinger's senior investing writer, having joined the august publication full time in 2016.


A long-time financial journalist, Dan is a veteran of SmartMoney, MarketWatch, CBS MoneyWatch, InvestorPlace and DailyFinance. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Consumer Reports, Senior Executive and Boston magazine, and his stories have appeared in the New York Daily News, the San Jose Mercury News and Investor's Business Daily, among other publications. As a senior writer at AOL's DailyFinance, Dan reported market news from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and hosted a weekly video segment on equities.


Once upon a time – before his days as a financial reporter and assistant financial editor at legendary fashion trade paper Women's Wear Daily – Dan worked for Spy magazine, scribbled away at Time Inc. and contributed to Maxim magazine back when lad mags were a thing. He's also written for Esquire magazine's Dubious Achievements Awards.


In his current role at Kiplinger, Dan writes about equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities, funds, macroeconomics, demographics, real estate, cost of living indexes and more.


Dan holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's degree from Columbia University.


Disclosure: Dan does not trade stocks or other securities. Rather, he dollar-cost averages into cheap funds and index funds and holds them forever in tax-advantaged accounts.