How Montanans’ Salaries Rank Compared To The Rest Of The Country

The financial website WalletHub released rankings based on "States Where People Have The Highest Income (2024)." It looks deeper than just average income, although that plays into the final study.

The study was broken down into three subcategories, 1) Median Annual Income, 2) Average Annual Income of Top 5% of Earners and 3) Average Annual Income of Bottom 20% of earners, which totaled to a cumulative score.

On a national scale, WalletHub discovered the median yearly income was $74,600, but the study determined more than just averages.

"The highest-earning 10% of individuals in the United States earn over 12 times more than those in the lowest-earning 10% based on the latest Census data," said WalletHub Analyst Cassandra Happe. Due to the income disparity, WalletHub looked at the data more in-depth than just median income.

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After averaging out the three categories into one cumulative score...

Montana Ranks In The Bottom 25%

WalletHub slated the Treasure State as 37th in the country.

Montana ranked 33rd in "Median Annual Income" with $68,937. Montana ranked 37th in "Average Annual Income of Top 5%" with our richest earning $395,720 per year. Montana ranked 31st in "Average Annual Income of Bottom 20%" with the lowest earners averaging $15,337 per year.

The Top 5...

Virginians were ranked number one overall by placing in the top three in the Top 5% and the Bottom 20% categories. The rest of the top five read New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Washington.

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The Bottom 5...

The lowest income-earning state was West Virginia. The Mountaineer State ranked in the bottom five of all three subcategories. New Mexico, Mississippi, Maine and Vermont rounded out the bottom five.

For a visual image and a full breakdown of the study, you can view the map below.