The competition over which state is the richest has Connecticut edging New Jersey $56409 to $56356 (based on median household income).
But that’s just income. I wanted to know who is richest after adjusting for cost of living and state/local taxes. After all, the extra income doesn’t help much if you don’t get to spend it, or have to spend a lot more of it to get the same stuff.
So I’ve taken cost-of-living adjustments from this report (equally weighting the four studies), and state/local tax rates from here , and crunched some numbers. Connecticut and New Jersey still do reasonably well (6th and 7th, respectively), but the big winner is New Hampshire, followed by Maryland, Minnesota, Virginia, and Colorado.
9 comments:
Well, the Granite State certainly deserves its nickname, as it tops the richest list, it bottoms the generous list.
This must seem fairly remarkable, in anyone's book.
Here's the 5 richest (as listed by Morgan) followed by their 'generosity' rank (and 'rank' is the word for it):
NH (50), MD (30), MN (45), VA (38), & CO (43).
One good thing, the scrooges are fairly evenly distributed, one each south, west, midwest, new england, and the littoral.
Okay, Morgan, how about a cross-weighting of the two lists into a sort of 'virtue index'? I'd do it but my TI-84 needs a new 9 volt.
I think that's within the realm of possibility.
State : Adjusted Income Rank : Giving Rank : Rank Relation : Virtue Index
Mississippi 48 6 42 1
Arkansas 45 5 40 2
Louisiana 47 12 35 3
Oklahoma 41 8 33 4
Alabama 39 7 32 5
New York 42 10 32 5
West Virginia 50 22 28 7
Tennessee 30 3 27 8
Wyoming 27 1 26 9
Florida 36 14 22 10
South Carolina 35 13 22 10
South Dakota 31 9 22 10
Texas 24 4 20 13
North Carolina 29 16 13 14
Idaho 32 20 12 15
North Dakota 38 29 9 16
Kentucky 40 33 7 17
Utah 9 2 7 17
California 25 19 6 19
Georgia 15 11 4 20
Montana 49 45 4 20
New Mexico 44 40 4 20
Hawaii 46 43 3 23
Nebraska 20 17 3 23
Kansas 16 15 1 25
Pennsylvania 34 34 0 26
Missouri 23 24 -1 27
Nevada 18 21 -3 28
Alaska 22 28 -6 29
Maine 43 49 -6 29
Arizona 26 37 -11 31
Illinois 13 26 -13 32
Oregon 28 41 -13 32
Rhode Island 37 50 -13 32
Indiana 17 31 -14 35
Vermont 33 47 -14 35
Washington 10 25 -15 37
Maryland 2 18 -16 38
Virginia 4 23 -19 39
Connecticut 6 27 -21 40
Delaware 8 30 -22 41
Iowa 19 42 -23 42
Michigan 12 35 -23 42
Ohio 21 44 -23 42
Massachusetts 14 39 -25 45
Colorado 5 32 -27 46
New Jersey 7 38 -31 47
Minnesota 3 36 -33 48
Wisconsin 11 46 -35 49
New Hampshire 1 48 -47 50
New Hampshire: The Skinflint State?
And here's a report of a reanalysis of giving accounting for cost of living and tax burden.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/bc-nro111405.php
Hmmm...Boston College found some sets to raise their state from #49 to #11. Do they have a "massage" dep't? ;-)
One thing here --- and awful lot of people live in New Hampshire but work just over the border in Mass. Tax situation, you know....
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