Start at Ellipse in DC to Visit America’s 7 Wealthiest Suburbs
Terence Jeffrey /
If you want to drive through the seven wealthiest counties in the United States, as measured by median household income, you will have to visit only two of the nation’s metropolitan areas.
And it would be best to start your trip from the Ellipse in front of the White House.
From there, drive six blocks down Constitution Avenue to the Roosevelt Bridge and cross over into Virginia. Head down Arlington Boulevard to Route 7 and then take the Dulles Toll Road to the airport.
When you get there, fly to San Francisco, rent a car, and drive south to Stanford University. Then drive back north through the city and across the Golden Gate Bridge. Then return immediately to the airport and fly back to Virginia to Reagan National Airport.
When you arrive at Reagan, drive through D.C. and Maryland to the town of North Laurel.
The East Coast side of this trip, according to Google Maps, need never take you more than 30 miles from the White House. Nor need the West Coast side take you more than 30 miles from the San Francisco airport.
But on this excursion, you would not only have driven in the seven wealthiest counties in the country, but also in the 10th- and 11th-wealthiest counties.
On the way from the White House to Dulles, you would drive in these Virginia jurisdictions: Arlington County; the city of Falls Church (which the Census Bureau treats as a county); and Fairfax and Loudoun counties.
On the way from the San Francisco airport to Stanford, you would drive in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. On the way from Stanford to the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge, you would drive in San Francisco and Marin counties.
And on the way from Reagan National Airport to North Laurel, you would drive in Howard County, Maryland.
The Census Bureau last week released its American Community Survey five-year estimates (2018-2022) for median household income.
Loudoun County, Virginia, ranked No. 1 in the nation with a median household income of $170,463.
Falls Church, Virginia, ranked second at $164,536. Santa Clara County, California, ranked third at $153,792. San Mateo County, California, ranked fourth at $149,907.
Fairfax County, Virginia, ranked fifth at $145,165. Marin County, California, ranked sixth at $142,019. And Howard County, Maryland, ranked seventh at $140,971.
The eighth-wealthiest county is the first one that is not a suburb of Washington or San Francisco: Douglas County, Colorado, with a median household income of $139,010.
Nassau County, New York, placed ninth at $137,709.
Then the rankings go back to the Washington and San Francisco areas: Arlington County, Virginia, ranked 10th at $137,387, and San Francisco itself ranked 11th at $136,689.
The seven jurisdictions in the Washington and San Francisco areas that had the nation’s highest median household incomes also had something else in common: They are all represented in the House of Representatives by liberal Democrats.
Loudoun County, the nation’s wealthiest county, was represented by Rep. Jennifer Wexton, a Democrat. Wexton had a 100% rating from the American Civil Liberties Union in the 117th Congress, which ended Jan. 3 of this year.
The city of Falls Church, the second-wealthiest jurisdiction, is represented by Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat who had a 100% rating from the ACLU in the 117th Congress.
Santa Clara County, California, the third-wealthiest county, had four Democratic representatives in the House: Anna Eshoo, Ro Khanna, Zoe Lofgren, and Jimmy Panetta. They all had 100% ACLU ratings.
San Mateo County, California, the nation’s fourth-wealthiest county, was represented by Eshoo and fellow Democrat Kevin Mullin, who was elected in 2022. Mullin previously served in the California State Assembly, where he had a 100% rating from the ACLU.
Fairfax County, Virginia, the fifth-wealthiest county, was represented by three Democrats: Wexton, Beyer, and Gerry Connolly, who—like Wexton and Beyer—had a 100% ACLU rating.
Marin County, California, the sixth-wealthiest county, was represented by Rep. Jared Huffman, a Democrat who also had a 100% rating from the ACLU.
Howard County, Maryland, the nation’s seventh-wealthiest county, was represented by Rep. John Sarbanes, a Democrat with a 100% rating from the ACLU.
Douglas County, Colorado, the eighth-wealthiest county, was the first outlier. It was primarily represented by Rep. Ken Buck, a Republican who had only an 11% rating from the ACLU but who isn’t running for reelection.
A small portion of Douglas County also was represented by Rep. Jason Crow, a Democrat who had a 100% ACLU rating.
Nassau County, New York, the nation’s ninth wealthiest county, was represented by Rep. Andrew Garbarino, a Republican (44% ACLU rating) and GOP freshmen Anthony D’Esposito and George Santos. The House expelled Santos earlier this month.
Arlington County, Virginia, the 10th-wealthiest county, was represented by Beyer; and San Francisco County, the 11th-wealthiest county, was represented by Mullin and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also a Democrat.
Pelosi, like all of her Democratic colleagues in this nation’s other wealthiest congressional districts, had a 100% rating from the ACLU.
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