Chances of Becoming a Billionaire Based on Your State of Birth

Despite the challenging times faced by the U.S, it remains the country with the largest number of billionaires in the World. According to Forbes, there are already more than 60 new additions to their 2023 Billionaires List, two of which are LeBron James and Tiger Woods.

The continued superiority of the United States prompted the team at SuperCasinoSites to look at the matter from an intriguing angle – the birthplaces of the richest people. It turns out that your chances of becoming a billionaire are the greatest if you were born in New York, as according to our study, it is the state with the highest billionaires per capita ratio.

The current report presents the geographical distribution of all U.S born self-made billionaires and displays the findings on a map.

Methodology

Forbes (life story and current net worth) and US Census Bureau (population figures) are the primary data sources used in this study. We calculated the quoted billionaire rates based on 100,000 residents, with the population figures current as of the last official census (July, 2022).

Since only self-made billionaires are the focus of our study, rich persons who owe their fortune to an inheritance, court decision, or any other circumstance beyond their control, have not been considered. Thus, after a careful sifting, out of the 724 U.S billionaires in Forbes real-time ranking, 422 remained for our analysis.

Top 10 States with the Highest Billionaire per Capita Ratio

While absolute numbers are easier to grasp, it is the ratio between billionaires and local citizens that more accurately represents the merit of a particular location. However, this has nothing to do with New York as it is the leader in terms of both the number of billionaires born there (76) and their per capita ratio (0.39 per 100,000 individuals). Just a few of the wealthy people that originate from New York state are Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Ralph Lauren, and Jay-Z.

It seems that the East Coast is a particularly productive region, since it is the home of the top 3 states with the highest billionaires-per-capita ratio. New York is followed by Massachusetts, which according to Forbes and other public resources is the birth state of 20 billionaires. Given that its population is nearly 7 million people, the billionaires per capita ratio amounts to 0.29 per 100,000 residents.

Only three of the current US billionaires were born in Rhode Island – Jay Paul ($4 billion), Brad Jacobs ($3.8 billion), and Jonathan Nelson ($3.1 billion). The state’s population is just above 1 million people, so the ratio was calculated at 0.27 per 100,000 individuals.

Missouri and Nebraska hold the fourth and fifth positions in our selection with nearly identical billionaires per capita ratios of 0.26 and 0.25 per 100,000 state residents. Just like Rhode Island, Nebraska is the birth state of only two billionaires, however. One of them, Warren Buffett, is the third-richest person in the U.S. His net worth as of July 18, 2023 is $106 billion.

The states occupying from 6th to 10th position in our ranking are Maryland, New Mexico, Montana, Illinois, and Oklahoma. Their billionaires per capita ratios are within the range of 0.19 – 0.17 billionaires per 100,000 citizens. Albuquerque, New Mexico is where Jeff Bezos, the richest American, was born. As of July 18, 2023, his net worth is estimated at $114 billion.

The Five Smallest US Localities Where a Billionaire Was Born

New York with 8,335,897 residents as per the latest official census (July, 2022) is the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. Logically, the city is the birthplace of the greatest number of billionaires in the country (54), with Jeff Yass ($28.5 billion), Ray Dalio ($19.1 billion), and Israel Englander ($11.3 billion) just to name a few.

However, our study proves that it is not at all mandatory to be born in a big city in order to have a chance of becoming a billionaire. A good example is Clarks, NE (344 residents) where Evan Williams (Ev) was born. Although he dropped out of the University of Nebraska, he managed to start the Blogger, Twitter, and Medium companies and currently has a net worth estimated at $1.8 billion. As for Clarks, its billionaire per capita ratio is 290.7 (on a 100,000 individuals basis).

The Nebraska village is not the only small U.S locality that has given birth to a billionaire. Comfrey, MN and Portage, OH are just a bit more populated with 392 and 399 residents, respectively. Comfrey is the birthplace of Glen Taylor ($2.6 billion) while Clayton Mathile ($2.3 billion) was born in Portage.

The fourth and fifth smallest U.S localities where a billionaire was born are Marshall, AR and Marks, MS. With a population of 1,328 and 1,444 individuals, respectively, each is the birthplace of one billionaire, which pushes the billionaires per capita ratio to 75.3 and 69.25 per 100,000 residents.

Raw Data

Cities Where the Most Billionaires are Born

*Data captured 2023-06-15