How Much Money To Be 1 Percent

Be honest. You are jealous of the one percenter club, the richest Americans in terms of income. Yet you want to be one of them. You want to be one of those top 1% of U.S. earners.

What exactly does it take to reach that status, to become a one percenter?

For Americans overall, the top 1% of earners average $1.697 million of annual income.

But because that's an average, it means that the range of income you need to be among the richest Americans based on annual income starts much lower. In fact, you only need $545,978 or more annual income to become a one percenter.

One Percenter Status: How Many People Become One Of The Richest Americans?

And 1.4 million American taxpayers — either individual filers or households — have at least that much income, qualifying for one percenter status.

That's based on adjusted gross income (AGI) from 2018, the latest year for which IRS data are available. The numbers were crunched for IBD by GoBankingRates.com.

AGI is your total income after subtracting deductions like contributions to a traditional IRA or to your 401(k) account are subtracted for tax return purposes.

Top 1% Varies From State To State

Income for the top 1% varies widely from state to state and for the District of Columbia.

The average income for the top 1% of the richest Americans is as low as $667,168 in West Virginia to a high of $2.84 million in Connecticut.

Those are averages for all of the top 1% highest income taxpayers in those states. What does it take to become a one percenter? The range of yearly incomes for the top 1% of richest Americans has its highest starting point in D.C. There, it takes at least $838,692 to belong to the top 1%.

Where It's Easiest To Become A One Percenter

The lowest state threshold for entry to the top one percenter club is West Virginia's $319,845.

Some states are home to a lot more top 1% annual earners than others. California has just shy of 170,000 one percenter taxpayers. There are almost 117,000 members of the one percenter club in Texas. New York has nearly 91,000. Florida has more than 95,000 one percenters.

At the other extreme, Wyoming has the fewest one percenters with 2,516.

Additional states with fewer than 3,200 one percenters are Vermont and Alaska.

Income For The 99% Who Lag The Richest Americans

What about everyone else? What about people who are not the richest Americans? How low is the income of the other 99%, the people whose annual income lags the top 1%'s?

Much lower, at least in comparison. Nationwide, the other 99% of American taxpayers average annual income of $66,480.

Statewide averages for the other 99% range from a low of $48,903 for bottom 99 percenters in Mississippi.

At the high end of the range for bottom 99 percenters: $87,872 in D.C.

The Income Gap: Richest Americans Vs. Other Americans

Another way to compare annual income for the elite one percenter club and the "bottom" 99% is this: Nationwide, top one percenters' average yearly income is a staggering 25 and a half times the annual earnings of the bottom 99%.

The discrepancy is sharpest in New York. There, top one percenters have nearly 39 more annual income than bottom 99 percenters.

The difference between the "haves" and everyone else is smallest in West Virginia. There, top one percenters average less than 13 times the annual income of the bottom 99 percenters.

Follow Paul Katzeff on Twitter at @IBD_PKatzeff for tips about retirement planning and active mutual fund managers who consistently outperform the market.

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