Ranked by median income for the years 2012 to 2016, all five of the top five counties in the entire United States are Washington, D.C. suburbs, CNSNews.com reports:
According to the American Community Survey's new five-year estimates (2012-2016), the five richest counties in the country are: Loudoun County, Va., where the median household income was $125,672; Falls Church City, Va., where it was $115,244; Fairfax County, Va., where it was $114,329; Howard County, Md., where it was $113,800; and Arlington County, Va., where it was $108,706....
An additional four Washington-area counties made it into the Top 20: No. 9 Fairfax City, Va. ($104,065); No. 14 Montgomery County, Md. ($100,352); No. 17 Prince William County, Va. ($98,546); and No, 20 Stafford County, Va. ($97,606).
That gave the Washington, D.C. area a total of 9 out of the 20 richest counties in the United States.
I've posted similar stories here in past years, but it never ceases to amaze me. A lot of the wealth derives from the centralized taxing, regulating, and spending power of the federal government (and lawyers and lobbyists who help companies navigate that), rather than from D.C.-area businesses such as Marriott that could be based anywhere. Maybe one possible cure for the supposed problem of income inequality would be to reduce taxes, spending, and regulation so that Washington has less power, and so that the people who live there have economic lives that are more in tune with those of the rest of the country.