(NEXSTAR) — As many across the United States continue to struggle with the rising cost of nearly everything caused by inflation, it may be hard to imagine people getting richer.
But new research suggests that the 19th century adage that suggests “the rich get richer” still rings true today: Last month, an anti-poverty group predicted that the world's first trillionaire could be born within the next decade.
The report found that billionaires' wealth has increased three times the rate of inflation since 2020, making them 34% richer. But you don't need $1 billion, or even $1 million, to be considered one of the richest people in America.
A family of three with a household income of $156,000 could be in the upper class, albeit at the lower end, according to a 2022 Pew Research Center analysis (though this threshold varies depending on where you live). The bar for being in the upper class in the US could be much higher: GOBanking Rates reported in December that a household may need to earn more than $250,000 to be considered upper class.
The personal finance site used a slightly lower median household income of $200,000 to analyze where the wealthiest Americans are getting richer.
The analysis, released Wednesday, Feb. 21, looked at the nation's 100 largest cities and ranked them based on how each city's median household income changed between 2019 and 2022, as well as the change in the number of households earning more than $200,000.
As expected, California dominated GOBankingRate's list, with analysts concluding that Los Altos topped the list as the city where the “rich are getting richer.” According to U.S. Census Bureau data, the city's median household income is expected to exceed $400,000 in 2022. No other city on the list had a household income above $400,000.
Los Altos is one of seven California cities to make the top 10. Overall, 37 California cities made the list.
GOBankingRate found that the wealthiest people on both coasts are getting wealthier. Virginia and Texas are the only Southern states with cities in the list's top 10. But Brentwood, Tennessee, was on the full list shared with News 2's parent company, Nexstar, and more precisely, the Nashville suburb ranked 56th, along with several cities in Alabama, Georgia and Florida.
Of the 100 cities analyzed, 78 will have a median household income of more than $200,000 in 2022, nine will have an income of more than $300,000, and 13 will be below that threshold.
At the bottom of GOBankingRate's list was Parkland, Florida, where the median household income is just over $200,000, but nearly half of the population earns more than that. The city had the second-lowest change in median household income from 2019 to 2022.
Below is the complete list of GOBankingRates, as well as an interactive table summarizing each city's median household income in 2022, the three-year percentage change in median household income, and the three-year percentage change in the population earning over $200,000.
Two Washington cities near Seattle, Bainbridge Island and Issaquah, saw the largest percentage change in household income over the three-year period (48% and 43%, respectively). Between 2019 and 2022, Bainbridge Island saw the largest percentage change in its population earning more than $200,000, at nearly 57%.
Overall, 20 states were represented in GOBankingRates' analysis.
But in some areas, even an income of more than $200,000 might not be enough: On average, a $100,000 salary is only worth about $70,700 after taxes and the cost of living in the nation's biggest cities, according to a recent study by personal finance site SmartAsset.
A recent analysis by a group of Republican lawmakers lays out the impact inflation will have on the average household in each state. The joint committee is chaired by a Democrat, but the report and data were released by a Republican. The report uses January 2021 as its baseline because “that was the last time inflation was within recent historical norms.”
The report found that most American households would need to spend more than $10,000 more to maintain the same goods and quality of life as they had less than three years ago.
The situation doesn't seem to be getting any better either.
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Although inflation has eased significantly over the past year, the Labor Department reported on Feb. 13 that consumer prices are still well above the Fed's 2% target.
The Federal Reserve has left interest rates unchanged for the past four meetings.
The Associated Press and Nexstar's Alix Martichoux contributed to this report.
