The Philadelphia area is home to 40 of the nation's 1,000 wealthiest ZIP codes, with one Center City neighborhood cracking the top 25.
That’s according to The Business Journals Wealthy 1000, a new ranking of the nation's ZIP codes with the highest concentration of wealth, based on a weighted formula that looks at wealth indicators including income, home value and population density.
Because of the focus on concentration of wealth, the Wealthy 1000 looks a bit different than rankings that give more weight to metrics like average home value or average household income. Affluent urban ZIP codes rise to the top in the Wealthy 1000 thanks to denser clusters of wealth, while moneyed suburban areas on the Main Line and elsewhere don't fare as well due to their smaller populations.
In fact, the four ZIPs ranked highest in the region are all Center City or Center City-adjacent neighborhoods, three of which crack the nation's top 50.
Ranking at No. 24 in the U.S. and first in Greater Philadelphia is ZIP code 19103, an area encompassing Rittenhouse, Logan and Fitler squares in Center City West.
Following at No. 43 nationally is 19147, a ZIP code largely made up of the Queen Village, Bella Vista and Passyunk Square neighborhoods. Old City's 19106 ZIP is next, ranking No. 50 on the list.
Narrowly missing the top 100, but placing fourth in the region, is Fairmount's 19130 ZIP code at No. 102.
Ultra-rich but more sparsely populated pockets of Greater Philadelphia fall slightly lower on the list. Those include Main Line neighborhoods Wynnewood (No. 295), Merion Station (No. 309) and Narberth (No. 347), all of which squeezed into the top 350 in the nation.
Wilmington's 19806 ZIP code is next in the region at No. 375, the highest-ranking area in Delaware. ZIP code 08033 in Haddonfield, New Jersey, is also just outside of the top third of the Wealthy 1000, placing No. 377.
Here's a look at all 40 of the Philadelphia-area locales to make the list:
How we calculated the Wealthy 1000 rankings
The inaugural Wealthy 1000 used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the 2022 American Community Survey and Zillow Group Inc. The formula analyzed income, home equity, estimated savings, poverty rates and population density to identify areas with the greatest concentration of wealth.
The ranking also included a minimum threshold of $70,000 of per-capita income, to eliminate ZIP codes with high population density but otherwise lower income levels coupled with relatively high poverty rates.
Top of the List
The top 25 ZIP codes from the Business Journals Wealthy 1000 are clustered around the nation’s most populated metros, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami and Boston.
Not surprisingly, nine of the top 10 ZIP codes are in the New York City metro area, an area among the leaders in million-dollar earners.
California (190) has the most ZIP codes on the list, followed by New Jersey (111), New York (95), Massachusetts (79) and Florida (57).
Among California’s ZIP codes, 73 are in the San Francisco area. Los Angeles accounts for 20 ZIP codes, while San Jose (12) and San Diego (10) also exhibit high wealth density.
In large part because of the concentration-of-wealth focus, some states are not represented among the Wealthy 1000, including Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming and Vermont.
Although some of those states have higher-than-average GDPs per capita, some also have a high concentration of vacation homes and ranches, which were not factored as official households for this analysis.
Poverty rates also tempered the weighted formula, resulting in the exclusion of all ZIP codes from Mississippi, Louisiana and West Virginia.
Conversely, education levels — as measured by the Census — were considered in The Business Journals' proprietary formula.
Among the top 10 ZIP codes, an average 78% of residents achieved a bachelor’s degree or higher. That tacks with a recent Georgetown University report that determined Americans with a bachelor’s degree can expect to earn an average of $1 million more over the course of a lifetime than those without.
Recent wealth migration favors less populated states
That said, American money is on the move.
IRS data found Louisiana, Montana and Vermont all saw the largest increase in million-dollar earners from 2020 to 2021.
Additionally, the Sun Belt has experienced a surge in migration over the past decade —a trend that accelerated during the pandemic.
“Many high-income people whose jobs were remote moved to less-expensive areas,” said Scott Fulford, senior economist at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and author of "The Pandemic Paradox: How the Covid Crisis Made Americans More Financially Secure."“Top destinations included Montana and Idaho, as well as other states such as Vermont and West Virginia, which are close enough to big metropolitan areas to still make the occasional trip.”
