Federal employees whose compensation averages more than $126,000 and the nation’s greatest concentration of lawyers helped Washington edge out San Jose as the wealthiest U.S. metropolitan area.

The U.S. capital has swapped top spots with Silicon Valley, according to recent Census Bureau figures, with the typical household in the Washington metro area earning $84,523 last year. The national median income for 2010 was $50,046.

In 2010, six of the ten richest counties in the USA were around Washington DC

The highest median income counties in the USA for 2011


Rank    County                          Median household income
1       City of Falls Church, Virginia  $113,313 
2       Loudoun County, Virginia        $112,021
3       Fairfax County, Virginia        $104,259 
4       Hunterdon County, New Jersey    $102,500
5       Howard County, Maryland         $101,003
6       Los Alamos County, New Mexico   $100,423
7       Douglas County, Colorado        $99,522
8       Morris County, New Jersey       $96,316
9       Somerset County, New Jersey     $96,233
10      City of Fairfax, Virginia       $96,233
11      Arlington County, Virginia      $93,806 
12      Nassau County, New York         $92,450
13      Montgomery County, Maryland     $92,213
14      Calvert County, Maryland        $90,621
15      Stafford County, Virginia       $90,586
16      Prince William County, Virginia $88,850
17      Williamson County, Tennessee    $88,358
18      Forsyth County, Georgia         $88,040
19      Putnam County, New York         $88,036
20      Marin County, California        $87,728
21      Charles County, Maryland        $86,141

DC area counties were 11 of the top 21, 5 of the top 10, 10 of the top 16.

Washington also had the most lawyers per capita in the U.S. compared with the 50 states, with one for every 12 city residents, according to figures from the American Bar Association and the Census Bureau. In New York State the figure was one out of every 123 residents, while in California the ratio was one in 243.

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Brian Wang

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