To Join California’s Top 1 Percent, a Household Must Earn More Than $1 Million per Year

The seven-figure threshold for reaching the top 1 percent holds true in five states. In West Virginia, it takes less than $500,000.

From 2017 to 2022, the average income of the top 5 percent of households in California spiked more than 37 percent, from slightly less than $450,000 to more than $613,000. CNN

To rank in the upper echelon of income earners in California, individuals need to bring home more than $1 million annually, a study released July 17 by financial website Go Banking Rates found.

With a population of slightly more than 39 million people, and nearly 20 million income tax returns filed in 2022 for the 2021 tax year, about 200,000 California households make more than $1 million per year, according to the study—which adjusted the amounts earned to 2024 dollars to account for inflation.