Which states report the highest average income on tax returns?

In tax year 2023, tax returns filed from the District of Columbia reported the highest average income, $143,300, followed by Connecticut ($121,733) and Massachusetts ($121,181). Mississippi ($65,863), West Virginia ($68,156) and New Mexico ($69,542) had the lowest; the U.S. average was $95,243. Income here is adjusted gross income, the income on a tax return after a few adjustments, averaged over all returns. An average is pulled up by a few very large incomes, so it is higher than what a typical household makes. The U.S. figure also counts returns from Puerto Rico, military bases overseas and Americans abroad.

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Source and date

Source
IRS Statistics of Income, Historic Table 2 (individual income and tax data by state)
License
Public domain (U.S. government work)
Data as of
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Citation

Chartly. “Which states report the highest average income on tax returns?” Chart. Data: IRS Statistics of Income, Historic Table 2 (individual income and tax data by state), https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-historic-table-2 (data as of December 31, 2023). https://chart.ly/charts/average-income-on-tax-returns-by-state (accessed September 27, 2026).

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State Average adjusted gross income per return, dollars
District of Columbia 143,300
Connecticut 121,733
Massachusetts 121,181
Washington 114,848
New Jersey 111,864
California 110,960
Wyoming 110,694
New Hampshire 108,721
New York 107,450
Virginia 102,403
Colorado 101,760
Maryland 100,608
Illinois 99,263
North Dakota 98,230
Florida 98,081
Nevada 95,528
Minnesota 94,936
Utah 94,540
Texas 92,870
Pennsylvania 90,857
South Dakota 90,778
Alaska 90,076
Arizona 89,405
Delaware 87,971
Oregon 87,932
Nebraska 87,477
Rhode Island 87,336
Tennessee 86,869
Wisconsin 86,578
Iowa 86,119
Idaho 86,033
Kansas 85,803
Montana 85,142
North Carolina 84,870
Hawaii 84,322
Georgia 84,221
Vermont 83,766
Missouri 83,389
Michigan 81,709
Maine 80,888
South Carolina 80,554
Ohio 80,489
Arkansas 79,492
Indiana 78,924
Alabama 77,823
Oklahoma 77,287
Kentucky 73,762
Louisiana 73,322
New Mexico 69,542
West Virginia 68,156
Mississippi 65,863
U.S. overall 95,243