Here’s How Much People Make In The Richest County In Connecticut

CONNECTICUT — In today's world, there are such realities as $7 cups of coffee, designer clothing on dogs and people spending inordinate amounts of money on services that rarely justify the cost. And while we're not all living this lavish lifestyle, a new report suggests you might find this type of spending in Fairfield County, which was just named the richest county in Connecticut.

The typical household rakes in about $92,969 a year, according to the report published in January by the financial news and opinion site 24/7 Wall St.

Here’s other priceless information on the richest county in our state:

• Poverty Rate: 8.8 percent (State: 10.0)
• October 2019 Unemployment: 3.4 percent (State: 3.6)
• Adults with a bachelor’s degree: 47.4 percent (State: 38.9)
• Largest place in the county: Bridgeport

The area in Fairfield County known as the Gold Coast runs from Greenwich to Fairfield along the Long Island Sound. The County has become a haven for investment management firms as hedge funds like Bridgewater Associates and SAC Capital Advisors set up shop, according to Forbes.

A 2016 article in The Atlantic presented a more tarnished view of the Gold Coast, claiming that "Few places in the country illustrate the divide between the haves and the have-nots more than the county of Fairfield, Connecticut."

Across the country, the typical household in the wealthiest counties earned between $61,000 and $136,000 a year, with Loudoun County, Virginia, coming in as the wealthiest county in the nation.

The top five richest counties in the country were rounded out by Howard County, Maryland ($117,730); Santa Clara County, California ($116,178); Douglas County, Colorado ($115,314); and Los Alamos County, New Mexico ($115,248).

At the other end of the spectrum, Arizona’s Maricopa County had the lowest median income of the wealthiest counties at $61,606. Still, the median household income in Maricopa County was close to $5,000 higher than in the rest of the state.

To determine the richest county in each state, 24/7 Wall St. looked through the median annual household incomes for each U.S. county using five-year estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2018 American Community Survey.

The full methodology and report are available at 24/7 Wall St.