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Growth of High-Income Taxpayers

1 min readBy: Nick Kasprak

These data show percentage growth of taxpayers earning over $200,000, minus the percentage growth of all taxpayers, over the decade-long period from 1999 to 2009. The $200,000 threshold is in nominal dollars, so all states will have had considerable growth, but the differences between the states demonstrate that certain states have had much stronger increases in wealthy taxpayers than others. North Dakota takes the top spot – returns with AGI over $200,000 increased 144.53%, while all returns increased only 7.1% – a considerable difference of 137.4%. Michigan is last – returns over $200,000 increased only 17.6%, while total returns actually decreased by 0.5%, for a final difference of 18.1%.Map

State Number of Tax Returns – 1999 Returns with AGI > $200K – 1999 Number of Tax Returns – 2009 Returns with AGI > $200K – 2009 % Growth All Returns % Growth Returns with AGI > $200K Difference Rank
North Dakota 301559 2843 322972 6952 7.10% 144.53% 137.4% 1
Alaska 327510 4038 357870 9367 9.3% 132.0% 122.7% 2
Virginia 3261947 65611 3685674 149527 13.0% 127.9% 114.9% 3
Maryland 2499237 53611 2751233 114430 10.1% 113.4% 103.4% 4
Oklahoma 1444575 15428 1585616 31155 9.8% 101.9% 92.2% 5
South Dakota 350533 3832 385157 7471 9.9% 95.0% 85.1% 6
Louisiana 1859756 22433 1960107 42132 5.4% 87.8% 82.4% 7
Wyoming 232131 3099 269357 6045 16.0% 95.1% 79.0% 8
West Virginia 745092 5848 778130 10586 4.4% 81.0% 76.6% 9
Montana 416951 4049 472039 7584 13.2% 87.3% 74.1% 10
Texas 8837214 157145 10784887 307813 22.0% 95.9% 73.8% 11
New Mexico 776902 7752 912316 14804 17.4% 91.0% 73.5% 12
Hawaii 558612 6966 648846 12773 16.2% 83.4% 67.2% 13
Iowa 1345040 15079 1392004 25540 3.5% 69.4% 65.9% 14
Arkansas 1108693 11230 1211644 19617 9.3% 74.7% 65.4% 15
Nebraska 804169 10006 846101 16677 5.2% 66.7% 61.5% 16
New Jersey 3987660 126927 4236533 209662 6.2% 65.2% 58.9% 17
Rhode Island 481564 7616 501586 12416 4.2% 63.0% 58.9% 18
Mississippi 1171297 10504 1241390 17220 6.0% 63.9% 58.0% 19
Utah 919417 12595 1124569 22675 22.3% 80.0% 57.7% 20
Alabama 1898392 22324 2048831 36885 7.9% 65.2% 57.3% 21
Pennsylvania 5724621 95564 6058513 155328 5.8% 62.5% 56.7% 22
Kansas 1211713 17879 1310164 29383 8.1% 64.3% 56.2% 23
Massachusetts 3048771 87937 3171888 139418 4.0% 58.5% 54.5% 24
California 14509886 361558 16384130 599695 12.9% 65.9% 52.9% 25
Delaware 371029 6297 420472 10402 13.3% 65.2% 51.9% 26
Minnesota 2340604 43680 2541797 69609 8.6% 59.4% 50.8% 27
Washington 2713142 55245 3144952 91312 15.9% 65.3% 49.4% 28
New York 8417974 212023 9116699 331780 8.3% 56.5% 48.2% 29
Missouri 2530205 34752 2683562 53453 6.1% 53.8% 47.8% 30
Colorado 2029929 43877 2331974 70814 14.9% 61.4% 46.5% 31
Kentucky 1719514 19793 1841152 30369 7.1% 53.4% 46.4% 32
South Carolina 1775986 21695 2024495 34685 14.0% 59.9% 45.9% 33
North Carolina 3577630 54773 4144875 88522 15.9% 61.6% 45.8% 34
Maine 595018 6968 624567 10491 5.0% 50.6% 45.6% 35
New Hampshire 611824 12320 659001 18772 7.7% 52.4% 44.7% 36
Tennessee 2536680 35307 2794712 54434 10.2% 54.2% 44.0% 37
Connecticut 1646153 60419 1711715 87809 4.0% 45.3% 41.4% 38
Illinois 5714463 127566 6008183 186041 5.1% 45.8% 40.7% 39
Vermont 293581 4164 316053 6149 7.7% 47.7% 40.0% 40
Arizona 2087966 35146 2670661 58881 27.9% 67.5% 39.6% 41
Idaho 545767 6500 657773 10279 20.5% 58.1% 37.6% 42
Wisconsin 2560400 35626 2728034 51064 6.5% 43.3% 36.8% 43
Oregon 1533824 24180 1732774 35809 13.0% 48.1% 35.1% 44
Indiana 2803511 35776 2951362 49867 5.3% 39.4% 34.1% 45
Ohio 5526890 73897 5409661 96843 -2.1% 31.1% 33.2% 46
Nevada 912829 16185 1243552 26567 36.2% 64.1% 27.9% 47
Georgia 3555069 66781 4447966 101974 25.1% 52.7% 27.6% 48
Florida 7263531 142046 8910654 210092 22.7% 47.9% 25.2% 49
Michigan 4556948 73114 4534729 85981 -0.5% 17.6% 18.1% 50
District of Columbia 273916 8183 312067 16783 13.9% 105.1% 91.2% 6
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