If the top 1% of the nation put all of their money into land they would own 40 states. In contrast the bottom 80% of the nation could only afford to own all the real estate in 3 states. All the real estate in the contiguous US is estimated to be worth nearly $23 trillion. The top 1% of US households is estimated to be worth $19.2 trillion. This means that only 1% of the US population could literally afford to buy almost the entire country if it were for sale.



These numbers are based on the top 1% by net worth, instead of income. Sources and tables are at the bottom of the page. If you’re curious how close you are to the top 1%, try out the net worth percentile calculator or the income percentile calculator. They are based on a different data set, but the general trends are the same.

I filled in the maps starting in the west coast and moved east. I removed states that the 1% couldn’t afford in their $19.2 trillion budget starting with Florida. The 8 states in the contiguous US that weren’t selected are Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.

The bottom 80% had a combined wealth of $5.1 trillion, which could pay for California, Oregon, and Washington. I wanted to stay consistent and start from the west coast, so California just based on it’s size and wealth is driving down the number of states.



This is how much land the top 1% could own if all their money was in property Net Worth of the Top 1% ($19.1 trillion)

Net Worth of the Bottom 80% ($5.1 trillion) Real Estate Value Real Estate Value

Table of State Real Estate Values

State Real Estate Values ($ billions) Alabama 400 Arizona 315 Arkansas 224 California 3905 Colorado 429 Connecticut 400 Delaware 72 Dist. Of Columbia 42 Florida 1021 Georgia 528 Idaho 182 Illinois 833 Indiana 387 Iowa 235 Kansas 220 Kentucky 183 Louisiana 354 Maine 122 Maryland 470 Massachusetts 517 Michigan 865 Minnesota 416 Mississippi 166 Missouri 318 Montana 213 Nebraska 144 Nevada 149 New Hampshire 114 New Jersey 930 New Mexico 150 New York 1245 North Carolina 506 North Dakota 110 Ohio 838 Oklahoma 323 Oregon 400 Pennsylvania 914 Rhode Island 90 South Carolina 339 South Dakota 103 Tennessee 380 Texas 1266 Utah 247 Vermont 44 Virginia 555 Washington 716 West Virginia 162 Wisconsin 344 Wyoming 97

Source : New Estimates of Value of Land of the United States (published 2015, 2009 data)

Wealth by Percentile

I thought about using the SCF data that I already include on the calculators pages, but I decided to do some additional third party referencing instead.

Group Total Wealth ($ trillions) Mean Household Wealth ($ millions) Households (millions) Top 1% $19.18 $16.44 1.167 Next 19% $45.71 $2.06 22.173 60-80% $5.06 $0.22 23.34 40-60% $1.42 $0.06 23.34 Bottom 40% -$0.49 -$0.01 46.68

Wealth Sources : Wealth Power and Income (2010 values)

Household data from the US Census 2010