Where Are Incomes Bigger In 2025 — Minnesota or Wisconsin?

MINNESOTA — A new WalletHub report compares how much money people make in each state, and Minnesotans are earning significantly more than Wisconsinites in 2025.

WalletHub, a personal finance website, analyzed data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia to determine where people are doing best financially.

The study ranks states based on three cost-of-living-adjusted income categories: the average annual income of the top 5 percent of earners, the median income, and the average income of the bottom 20 percent.

How the rankings shake out

• Minnesota came in at No. 7 overall, according to the June 3 report.
• Wisconsin, meanwhile, ranked much lower at No. 29.

According to WalletHub, the average income for the top 5 percent of earners in Minnesota is $486,764. Minnesotans in the bottom 20 percent earn $20,616, which is among the highest lower-tier incomes in the country. The state's median annual income sits at $89,434, adjusted for cost of living.

In Wisconsin, those in the top 5 percent earn $418,059 per year. The bottom 20 percent make $18,615, and the state’s median income is $75,780, or more than $13,000 less than Minnesota's.

The report aims to highlight not just which states are wealthy overall, but how income is distributed across different economic brackets.

In the methodology, WalletHub gave double weight to the average income of the top 5 percent, and full weight to both the median income and the income of the bottom 20 percent. All three figures were adjusted using a cost-of-living index.

"The highest-earning 10 percent of individuals in the United States earn over 12 times more than those in the lowest-earning 10 percent, based on the latest Census data,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said in the report.

"By measuring the income of various percentiles against a state's median income, we can better identify where income disparities are more prevalent, which could help us better understand why residents of certain states struggle more to make ends meet."

Here’s how the top five states ranked for income overall in 2025, according to WalletHub:

• Virginia: Top 5% earn $533,522 | Bottom 20% earn $19,293
• New Jersey: Top 5% earn $522,128 | Bottom 20% earn $17,083
• New York: Top 5% earn $575,505 | Bottom 20% earn $13,647
• Connecticut: Top 5% earn $535,578 | Bottom 20% earn $15,005
• Washington: Top 5% earn $499,994 | Bottom 20% earn $18,777

And the bottom five:

• Mississippi: Top 5% earn $391,715 | Bottom 20% earn $12,515
• New Mexico: Top 5% earn $371,006 | Bottom 20% earn $12,351
• Louisiana: Top 5% earn $405,592 | Bottom 20% earn $11,733
• Maine: Top 5% earn $358,542 | Bottom 20% earn $14,540
• West Virginia: Top 5% earn $357,430 | Bottom 20% earn $12,940

WalletHub used data compiled as of May 6, 2025, from sources including the U.S. Census Bureau and the Council for Community and Economic Research.

View the full report and see where every state ranks.