Loudoun County again led the nation in 2017 in median household income at nearly $136,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That mark is more than double the national average of $61,300 in 2017.
Loudoun first found itself atop the household income category in 2007, when the median income was just over $107,000.
The county's economic development office notes “median income is an important economic indicator because it indicates the buying power of a county’s residents. It is favored over the average incomes because it is less susceptible to skewing by outliers.”
After Loudoun County Public Schools and the county government, Loudoun's leading employers are Verizon, United Airlines, the Department of Homeland Security and Raytheon.
Economic development officials attribute part of Loudoun’s high income levels to the highly educated population and low unemployment rates.
Nearly 60 percent of the county's residents have a bachelor's degree, and the unemployment rate was 2.3 percent in October.
(28) comments
Someone was mentioning good restaurants......where? Not certainly in the Aldie, South Riding area. There is nothing other than a few places. And in general the restaurants are overpriced and not unique......There are lots of breweries and wineries which is nice, but most of them don’t have restaurants incorporated like they do in other parts of the county. There aren’t enough mom and pop places like Diners you see in places like Ohio and New Jersey and there isn’t much fast food, which would be nice to have once in a while. There is a lack of Middle Eastern and Greek Restaurants which you see frequently in the Detroit Area......and those restaurants are not only healthy and flavorful, they not expensive....
The bottom line is in parts of the County, especially the southern part, along route 50, there is really not many restaurants.....and if there are, they aren’t very interesting....and way overpriced..
With all this high income, it doesn’t show much in terms of good roads, including freeways to get to and from work, including a north and south freeway connecting route 50 to route 7. The roads are terrible here! Too many 4 way stop sign intersections in heavy traffic areas, roads the start and stop erratically and continue miles away, like North Star Blvd, etc...Limited access to Dulles Airport, as you have only 1 major entrance all the way on the Northeast side. There should be a southern entrance to the airport such as what they have at other major airports like DFW.....and the shame is there is open land everywhere.
Scottva, did I say it would be disastrous? I missed that. I thought I said it would hit much harder. The government workers may get their pay in the end, (nice vacation) but the contract workers will not. There are many contract workers in Loudoun. Many, many people in Loudoun work for companies such asB3 Group, and Raytheon. I believe everyone know that the entire government will not shut down. As far what you call the Schumer shutdown, are you talking about the weekend shutdown in January? That happened over the weekend when most government employees and contract workers aren’t even working? You have made this just another political statement to voice your opinion of the left when my statement was to say that people around areas the government employees and company’s dependent on the government are affected differently than other parts of the country.
For all the negative comments, the benefits of living in the wealthiest county in American has its benefits. Good schools mean fewer hoodlums will rob you. A well paid workforce means excellent property values which allow you to retire in style (try that in Detroit). Nice roads without potholes or trash. Wonderful places to dinner out and be entertained at. Not to mention overflowing government coffers to afford traffic reducing measures like interchanges and new roads. We have it so good in Loudoun, all we can do is complain about where the money comes from vs. enjoy the benefits of what that money yields. Many folks outside our bubble can only dream of the things we take for granted.
Big Government is the reason. A LOT of businesses around here set up to sell into the government.
True, and if there is a shut down our area gets hit much harder than most of the country.
@amerigirl, as much as you want to portray a "government shutdown" as being disastrous, especially for Loudoun County it's just no the case. Whether Trump shuts it down OR Schumer/Pelosi, it won't be as bad as you think it will be. Govt. workers that are furloughed still get paid when they go back to work, ESSENTIAL government personnel are not included in the shut-down. So to be clear, a "government shutdown" does NOT mean the entire government shuts down like it implies. Many use the term "government shutdown" to scare people. What was the fallout when Schumer shut the government down last year? Nothing, nothing at all. Believe me, if I could honestly and factually rail against Schumer I would, but nothing happened when he shut the government down and it would be dishonest to make stuff up or strongly imply otherwise.
That makes sense given our location. I think most areas have the school system as their largest employer, kids are a high percentage of the counties population.
Loudoun economic officials are all too happy to conflate the measures.
The total income in Loudoun ~ (the number of households) x (the median income PER household)
and
The total income in Loudoun ~ (the number of adults) * (the median income per adult)
If every dual-earner household in Loudoun split and lived separately, our ranking would take a precipitous drop (say median household income 40% lower). The reason we rank so high is because of how high our % of married couples/dual-earners are. Fairfax or other urban areas have much lower rates and while they produce lots more $$, it's not as concentrated at the "household" level. This is a misleading statistic, not least because it does not take into account wealth (amassed earnings) but only new income per year.
That said, the top 2 employers in the county are LCPS and the county government. And at over $70K/year on average, LCPS families (2 earners * $70K) bring the median household income UP in LoCo. Think about that and then ask why LCPS spouses on the school board want to take your tax $$ and give a 15% raise to some teachers....
Exactly correct. Our high level of "household" income is directly caused by the high number of dual-income couples we have. Simply put, our high number of working moms give households high incomes.
Just couldn’t pass up an opportunity to complain about teacher pay, eh?
I'm not so sure that is the reason. Nationwide only 13% of families have just 1 parent working.
We have the highest median income and the two largest employers are, "Loudoun County Public Schools and the county government?" Hmmm. Sounds like our civil servants are getting paid WAAAAAAAAAY too much.
David and Brian are again throwing shade at teachers and claiming they are overpaid. Brian totally distorts facts, again, while David continues his well-known campaign against all public schools, perhaps in favor of no education.
Brian - to correct yoru inaccurate use of data, teachers would need a masters and 10 years of teaching in Loudoun to earn the money you want everyone to think is the starting salary. Well, you can claim your alternative facts all you want but it does not make it true.
David - time to get over the issue of public education being paid for by the public - this was settled in this country 100 years ago.
I advocate for the fair distribution of educational $$, not the elimination of public schools. The travesty of justice is the extortion of funds from non-public school parents to pay for the government's schools. If the educational funds collected from everyone were equally distributed to ALL students and not SOME students, I'd be perfectly happy. But, until that discrimination stops, I'll keep harping about it.
Such a shame that we live in a county with this much $ sloshing around and we score so low so many quality of life measures: green areas, parks and recreation facilities; attractiveness of living space; walkable urban areas; low traffic; quality of design in public spaces; etc. We should be doing so much better. But it won't happen until we demand that focus from our government--rather than applauding their cutting a penny off the tax rate.
The high income is very misleading. The cost of living needs to be considered. You can make much less in other parts of the country and be just as well off.
It's all Trump's fault.
What? An answer that doesn't blame Obama or Clinton?
I don't feel wealthy
It's all relative
It's called "living at a different level of broke"
Try living in some of the poorer parts of the country and you will see how well off you really are.
Because you're taxed too much from all the big government you probably vote for.
How would you have a clue who I voted for or even if I voted? Do you just like labeling people?
@amerigirl, you commented to "tolerantleft" and said "How would you have a clue who I voted for". Hate to break the new to you but, all someone needs to do is read some of your comments in this post or others and your Liberal badge of honor is more evident than you realize and that's ok but it also places you in a position of setting yourself up for comments you may not find flattering. I'll refer you to the back and forth about MS-13 and illegal immigration we had going in another news article. I'm still waiting for your reply [beam]
@amerigirl, there is/will be PLENTY to blame Obama and Hillary for, give it time.
I believe I asked tolerantleft how they would know, not you. I guess you just feel the need to answer for them, but why? Do you know how long they have been posting and if it is long enough or on the same post as I am on to have an understanding of me? I believe I responded to you, did you check? Understand that if you post near a weekend that I may not get it until days later and that they may not post my reply for days, and that I HAVE a life! It isn’t based on sitting around waiting to respond to posts.
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