Map: The Astonishing Concentration of High-Income Earners Around Washington, D.C.

[MrScorpio]

Six of the top-ten richest counties are in Virginia and Maryland, and 13 of the top-30 richest counties form a continuous circle around the nation's capital.

DEREK THOMPSONDEC 17 2013, 6:00 PM ET

Six of the ten richest counties in America are in Virginia and Maryland, clustered around the Washington, D.C., metro area. Six of the ten poorest counties in America are in Mississippi or Kentucky. These figures, from the Census, are in median household income dollars.



To be clear, this isn't telling you that the richest people in America live one commute from D.C. In fact, parts of Connecticut, New York, and California are much, much richer than the richest parts of the Greater DC Area. Instead, it's telling you that these counties, of varying sizes, have the highest median income, because there is a striking concentration of high-earning (if not quite vertiginously rich) households around the district.

On the Virginia side, Falls Church City (#1 richest county in the country) is enveloped by Arlington (#7) and east rim of Fairfax County (#5), which borders Loudoun (#2) on its west side. From Loudoun, you pass south through Prince William (#13) to Stafford (#9).

In Maryland, encircling Washington, you have, clockwise from the noon position, Montgomery (#12), Howard (#4), Anne Arundel (#24), Calvert (#23), St. Mary's (#29), ​and Charles (#18). All of these counties border each other, forming a kind of reverse-C (or Hebrew Fe) around the District.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/12/map-the-astonishing-concentration-of-high-income-earners-around-washington-dc/282457/

[hunter]

1. Buying and selling government is big business in the U.S.A.

[Glassunion]

2. Well... Would'nt all the money go to where the laws are made?

Money does make laws.

Am I missing something?

[LiberalEsto]

3. Falls Church,City, VA is not a county, so it should't be on the list of counties

Montgomery County, MD has been slipping lower for years. I think it used to be one of the top 3, now not even in the top 10.

[Octafish]

4. What a coincidence.

"One of the things that is interesting about reading conspiracy theory is that much of what folks think is conspiracy is really many people acting in concert to make or protect their money." -- Catherine Austin Fitts.



Money trumps peace." -- George Walker Bush, the election thieving warmonger-in-chief.

[FarCenter]

5. They are not called "Beltway Bandits" for nothing.