Richest States › Methodology
Richest States Power Rankings — Methodology
Field: 50 states + D.C.. Accountable official: Governor. Cadence: annual. Data retrieved 2026-06-18.
Weights are public so the ranking cannot be called rigged. Each dimension is normalized 0–100 across all ranked states & D.C. (min–max; inverted where lower is better), multiplied by its weight, and summed to the 0–100 composite. A metric that is unavailable for an entity is never estimated — the remaining weights are rescaled and the composite flagged “partial.”
| Dimension | Source | Direction | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | Census ACS 1-year, B19013 | Higher better ▲ | 25 |
| Income growth (YoY) | Census ACS 1-year, B19013 (2022→2023) | Higher better ▲ | 20 |
| Poverty rate | Census SAIPE 2023, SAEPOVRTALL_PT | Lower better ▼ | 15 |
| Income inequality (Gini) | Census ACS 1-year, B19083 | Lower better ▼ | 8 |
| Real (cost-of-living-adjusted) income pending | BEA Regional Price Parities API key pending | — | 20 |
| Economic mobility pending | Opportunity Insights dataset download pending | — | 12 |
Provenance
Primary source: U.S. Census Bureau · https://api.census.gov/data/.