How much money you need to be in the wealthiest 10% of U.S. households, by region

[Special thanks to David S. Luber (Florida Probate Attorney) for bringing this article to my attention.]

You’ll need to earn close to $200,000 a year to be within the top 10% of U.S. household incomes, though the exact threshold depends on where you live.

A recent Visa analysis calculated the income and net worth households need to be considered “affluent” across the U.S., which the report defines as households in the top 10% in terms of either income or net worth. Visa based the thresholds on 2024 U.S. Census survey data.

Nationally, those thresholds are about $210,000 a year in income or a net worth of roughly $1.8 million. Net worth is a measure of a household’s total assets, including home equity, savings and investments, minus its debts.

Those thresholds have increased since 2020, when the income needed to reach the top 10% was about $170,000 and the wealth cutoff sat around $1.3 million nationally. Rising home values and stock prices have pushed both numbers higher, while wage growth added further momentum, the study says.

The analysis also looked at how these thresholds vary by region, using cost-of-living data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis to account for local price differences. Here’s a look what it takes to be considered affluent in different parts of the country:

West: $227,000 income, $2 million net worth
Northeast: $222,000 income, $1.9 million net worth
South: $205,000 income, $1.8 million net worth
Midwest: $198,000 income, $1.7 million net worth

The regional cutoffs reflect what households pay for housing, goods and everyday services in each area. Because the thresholds are scaled to local prices, regions where costs run higher require more income or net worth to be considered affluent, while lower-cost areas require less.

Housing plays an outsized role in these cost differences, since it makes up the largest share of household spending, the study says.

That lines up with the most recent regional data, which shows median existing-home prices ranging from about $319,500 in the Midwest to roughly $628,500 in the West as of October 2025, according to the National Association of Realtors.

For more information see Mike Winters “How much money you need to be in the wealthiest 10% of U.S. households, by region,” CNBC, December 9, 2025.