Nearly 1 in 10 Households in This State Are Millionaires

Picture a state where roughly one out of every ten families has crossed the million-dollar mark. That state exists, and it is not California, New York, or Connecticut, the places most Americans picture when they think of concentrated wealth. According to Statista research published in August 2024, one state quietly outpaced all 49 others in millionaire density, sitting at a rate most people never saw coming.

That state is New Jersey. Roughly 246,000 New Jersey households hold a net worth of at least $1 million, which works out to 9.76% of every household in the state. California and New York both have far more millionaires in raw numbers, but their massive populations water down the percentage. New Jersey’s smaller footprint and concentrated wealth push it past every other state in the country.

The margin at the top is thin. Maryland finished second at 9.72% of households, trailing New Jersey by four hundredths of a percentage point. Connecticut rounded out the top three at 9.44%. Still, New Jersey beat 49 other states, including several long assumed to hold the wealthiest zip codes in America, to claim the title outright.

Fortune 500 Roots and Manhattan’s Shadow Built This Wealth

Real estate agents like to say the three most important factors in property value are location, location, location. For New Jersey, that logic applies statewide. The Garden State is home to Fortune 500 giants including Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Bristol Myers Squibb, giving pharmaceutical and healthcare executives a practical reason to live close to headquarters while staying outside the city.

That closeness to New York City matters just as much. New Jersey sits near enough to Manhattan for a real commute, yet far enough away to offer a quieter, more suburban life. Manhattan’s energy has no equal anywhere in the world, but a millionaire looking for space and room to raise a family may find the Garden State more livable than a high-rise. Residents get many of a major metro’s advantages without living inside one.

Steep property values feed the wealth figures too. New Jersey carries some of the highest property taxes in the country, and those same inflated home values push up net worth for anyone who has owned property for years. A homeowner who bought decades ago in a town near the city has likely watched their equity climb into millionaire territory almost by default, simply by staying put.

A 10.75% Tax Rate Is Testing the Garden State’s Grip on Its Crown

Millionaire density has not made New Jersey easy on millionaires. Since 2020, any resident earning more than $1 million in taxable income has paid what is informally known as the millionaire’s tax, a 10.75% state income tax rate applied to earnings between $1 million and $5 million. Income above $5 million was already taxed at that same rate before the expansion took effect.

Real estate has gotten more expensive to sell too. Legislation signed by Governor Phil Murphy on June 30, 2025, and in effect since July 10, 2025, rewrote the state’s so-called mansion tax. The obligation shifted from buyers to sellers, and the old flat 1% rate became a tiered structure, climbing from 1% on sales between $1 million and $2 million up to 3.5% on sales above $3.5 million.

That overhaul is projected to bring in more than $550 million a year for state programs. For a seller closing on a $4 million home, the new top tier alone can mean paying tens of thousands of dollars more than they would have under the old law. Wealthy residents now weigh that cost against every other reason they have for staying in New Jersey.

The Exodus Is Already Underway, and the Numbers Are Real

The tax pressure shows up clearly in migration data. IRS filings show New Jersey lost $2.6 billion in adjusted gross income to interstate migration during the 2022-2023 period alone. Between 2020 and 2024, a net 192,209 New Jersey residents left the state for good, the fourth-worst outmigration total in the country, behind only California, New York, and Illinois.

Florida and Texas are pulling the most departing wealth, and the pattern is not subtle. Both states charge no state income tax at all, which makes the math simple for anyone sitting on a large taxable income. Every year New Jersey holds its top spot in millionaire density, it also hands more of that same wealth to states with friendlier tax codes.

New Jersey’s millionaires are not staying for the tax climate. Family ties, career anchors, and unmatched access to New York City keep many in place, while others quietly calculate whether the trade-off still makes sense. The Garden State holds the title of America’s most millionaire-dense state today, but the forces working against that ranking are not slowing down.