The chart above shows the net worth of the billionaires of each region per square mile. The Northeastern US and the Western EU are the only regions whose billionaires have a net worth per square mile of over $1 million.
Findings
- The difference between the region with the highest billionaire net worth per area, the Northeastern US, and the region with the lowest, the Eastern EU, is $3,735,333 per square mile.
- The Northeastern US has 35.45 times the billionaire net worth per area that the Eastern EU does.
- The Northeastern US has a higher billionaire net worth per area than each individual state in the Northern and Eastern EU and the Southern and the Midwestern US.
- The Western EU has a higher billionaire net worth per area than each individual state in the Eastern EU and the Midwestern US.
- Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Vermont do not have a single billionaire.
- Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, and Slovenia do not have a single billionaire in the EU.
Caveats
- Billionaire data is from 2018.
- EU area data is from 2007, US area data is from 2010.
- Figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
- The Northeastern US consists of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
- The Western EU consists of Germany, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, and Luxembourg.
- The Southern EU consists of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta.
- The Southern US consists of Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, and West Virginia.
- The Western US consists of California, Washington, Colorado, Arizona, Oregon, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Hawaii, Idaho, Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming.
- The Northern EU consists of Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.
- The Midwestern US consists of Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
- The Eastern EU consists of Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
Details
The Western US has the highest billionaire net worth overall, highest when its population is taken into account, the highest average billionaire net worth, but ranks fifth in this metric. The Eastern EU trails in all four metrics.
Both the EU and the US have one region that dominates over the others, but only the EU has one region that trails by so much it is in a class all its own. The Eastern EU is such a laggard in three of the four metrics on billionaires' net worth. The only metric where it manages to keep up with the other regions (although it still ranks last) is the average net worth of its billionaires.
Sources
Forbes. 2018. "The World's Billionaires List." Accessed October 2, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/21/#version:static.
United Nations. 2007. "United Nations Statistics Division - Environment Statistics." Accessed January 23, 2018. https://unstats.un.org/unsd/environment/totalarea.htm.
United States Census Bureau. September 2012. "United States Summary: 2010: Population and Housing Unit Counts." Accessed January 23, 2018. https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/cph-2-1.pdf.