An eager reader forwards me this Investopedia article noting that the concentration wealth is not quite as bad in South Dakota as across the country:
In 37 states and the District of Columbia, the top 1% of filers together reported more income than the bottom half. Nationwide, the top 1% reported about 20% of all income, while the bottom 50% reported about 13%.
Wyoming has the highest share of income going to the top 1%. The top 1% averaged $4.2 million in adjusted gross income and collectively reported $11 billion in income, about 32% of the state’s $35 billion total.
In Florida and Nevada, the top 1% averaged $3.3 million and $3.0 million in adjusted gross income and claimed 29% and 27%, respectively, of all income reported. In Wyoming and Florida, the top 1% out-earned the bottom half by about 2.5-to-1.
In contrast, filers in the top 1% in West Virginia averaged about $977,000 and reported about 12% of the state’s income. Next lowest were Alaska and Hawaii, where the top percentile of earners reported about 13% and 14%, respectively, of income on tax filings [Sarina Trangle, “Where the Richest 1% Grab the Biggest Share of Income, State by State,” Investopedia, 2026.09.16].
South Dakota’s richest 1% reported only 19% of the income claimed in the state in 2023, while the bottom half of tax filers claimed 16% of that year’s income. That distribution was slightly better than the national average, but South Dakota still ranks 14th for concentration of wealth at the top. Every neighboring state except for Wyoming had a lower gap between the top 1%’s hoard and the bottom 50%’s stake.
The average income for South Dakota’s top 1% was $2.1 million, half the elite average in Wyoming but the same as North Dakota’s. In Minnesota, the top 1% averaged only $1.8 million.
If you think concentration of wealth is bad (and you should), you may take some consolation in seeing that South Dakota’s 1% aren’t quite as inordinately wealthy as they are by the national average. But South Dakota’s wealthy elites are still claiming more of the state income pie than their counterparts in 37 other states.