As politicians, pundits and popes are fond of reminding us, there is a large disparity in the distribution of wealth in the United States. What they don’t mention is that there is also a geographic one. There 12.3 million households in that earn more than $150,000 a year– about three times the median household income in America. Those who make that much are approximately the top 10 percent of earners. These households are heavily concentrated around the coasts and a few major landlocked cities.
The following interactive visualizes this disparity by showing you how far you have to travel from any given county to encompass 100,000 of these rich households. You can either search for a city or county or click or tap it directly.
For a fullscreen experience, see Time Labs.
In some cases, the count goes far above 100,000 if the final county to push the number of households over 100,000 is a very wealthy one.
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