You either have to own Dunder-Mifflin, Hershey’s Chocolate, or be a descendant of President James Buchanan, to live in our top 10 Richest Cities in Pennsylvania for 2019.
If you’re looking for safe cities and neighborhoods, amazing schools, and high-end shopping, with a bank account to match, you can stop your search. There are cities in The Keystone State that have these 5-star amenities, and then some. Yes, the Commonwealth has many cities that cater to the lifestyle of the Pennsylvania rich and famous.
How does one get their hand on one of these Pennsylvania cities where living your best life ‘ain’t no thing’? Well, a couple of things have to fall into place for you.
First off, you need to find a job that pays on average $95,000/year. Might we suggest a job in real estate in our number one richest city? The median home price in this city is currently $190,000, and is projected to rise an additional 2% this year. That’s a lot of Pennsylvania cheddar, folks.
Secondly, you have to be a hard worker. Unemployment rates and poverty rates in most of these affluent Pennsylvania cities hovers just above 4%.
Monetary wealth does make a city rich, but there are cities on our list that are both rich in the dollar as well as rich in amenities.
Cities on our list like Perkasie provide the backdrop for fancy wine tasting, and cities like Camp Hill provide multiple outlets for the one activity that rich people like to do most: head to the spa.
To see which cities make the dolla’ holla’ on our top 10 Richest Cities in Pennsylvania for 2019, grab a Philly cheesesteak and a Yuengling and take a look at the list below.
At the end of the day, here’s the set of the 10 richest places in Pennsylvania for 2019:
- Economy (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Collegeville (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Jefferson Hills (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Franklin Park (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Fox Chapel (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Souderton (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Forest Hills (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Doyle (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Perkasie (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Camp Hill (Photos | Homes For Sale)
It’s not lost on us that there are multiple cities on our 10 Best Cities to Live in Ohio for 2019 that are also on our richest list. (It’s worth a google.) Wealthy cities tend to have it all.
To narrow down the richest cities in the Quaker State, we looked at several factors: poverty rate, median household income, unemployment rate; and obviously, where Pennsylvania’s ‘Richie Rich’ live. The cities also had to have a population of at least 5,000.
This left us with 187 wealthy cities in the 33rd largest state and the sixth most populous state in the country.
Without further adieu, the one city that has it all on our 10 Richest Cities in Pennsylvania list is Economy.
So, if you care about living where there are great jobs and wealthy people, take a look the list below. The state with ‘Virtue, Liberty, and Independence’ is calling.
Rich people not your cup of tea? Feel free to check out some more reading about Pennsylvania:
The 10 Richest Cities In Pennsylvania For 2019
/10
Population: 9,230
Rank Last Year: 2 (Up 1)
Median Income: $81,137
Unemployment Rate: 3.7%
Poverty Rate: 3.8%
More on Economy: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Economy is a borough in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 8,970 at the 2010 census.
/10
Population: 5,221
Rank Last Year: 5 (Up 3)
Median Income: $103,828
Unemployment Rate: 4.2%
Poverty Rate: 1.2%
More on Collegeville: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Collegeville, sometimes referred to as “Little Philly” is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia on the Perkiomen Creek. Collegeville was incorporated in 1896. It is the location of Ursinus College, opened in 1869. The population was 5,089 at the 2010 census.
/10
Population: 11,244
Rank Last Year: 4 (Up 1)
Median Income: $88,328
Unemployment Rate: 4.4%
Poverty Rate: 3.1%
More on Jefferson Hills: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Jefferson Hills is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. It includes the community of Large. In the 2010 census the population was 10,619. Jefferson Hills was created as Jefferson Township, incorporating on January 22, 1828, and named after Thomas Jefferson. The borough is a part of West Jefferson Hills School District. Before 1998, the borough was known as Jefferson.
/10
Population: 14,301
Rank Last Year: 3 (Down 1)
Median Income: $121,711
Unemployment Rate: 4.6%
Poverty Rate: 1.4%
More on Franklin Park: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Franklin Park is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 13,470 at the 2010 census.
/10
Population: 5,363
Rank Last Year: 44 (Up 39)
Median Income: $162,054
Unemployment Rate: 4.9%
Poverty Rate: 0.4%
More on Fox Chapel: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Fox Chapel is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA, and is a suburb of Pittsburgh located 6 miles (10 km) northeast of downtown.
/10
Population: 6,813
Rank Last Year: 12 (Up 6)
Median Income: $66,667
Unemployment Rate: 4.0%
Poverty Rate: 4.8%
More on Souderton: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Souderton is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. The population was 6,618 at the 2010 census.
/10
Population: 6,439
Rank Last Year: 14 (Up 7)
Median Income: $65,096
Unemployment Rate: 3.6%
Poverty Rate: 6.4%
More on Forest Hills: Real Estate | Data | Photos
/10
Population: 8,307
Rank Last Year: 6 (Down 2)
Median Income: $76,042
Unemployment Rate: 3.1%
Poverty Rate: 8.0%
More on Doyle: Real Estate | Data | Photos
/10
Population: 8,505
Rank Last Year: 18 (Up 9)
Median Income: $73,470
Unemployment Rate: 3.7%
Poverty Rate: 7.2%
More on Perkasie: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Perkasie is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 35 miles (56 km) north of Philadelphia. Establishments in the borough early in the twentieth century included silk mills, baseballs, brickyards, lumber mills, tile works, a stone crusher, and manufacturies of cigars, tags and labels, wire novelties, etc. The population in 1900 was 1,803; in 1910, 2,779 people lived in Perkasie. The population was 8,515 at the 2013 census.
/10
Population: 7,906
Rank Last Year: 11 (Up 1)
Median Income: $78,161
Unemployment Rate: 4.0%
Poverty Rate: 7.2%
More on Camp Hill: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Camp Hill is a borough in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, USA, 3 miles (5 km) southwest of Harrisburg. It is part of the HarrisburgCarlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,888 at the 2010 census. There are many large corporations based in nearby East Pennsboro Township and Wormleysburg that use the Camp Hill postal address, including the Rite Aid Corporation, Harsco Corporation, and Gannett Fleming.
How We Determined The Richest Places In Pennsylvania For 2019
The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think about determining the richest places is to simply identify personal incomes. After all, rich people have really high salaries.
However, we don’t believe that one statistic wholly encompasses what it means to be one of the “richest places”. So we looked at this set of criteria from the newly released 2013-2017 American Community Survey:
- Poverty Level
- Median Household Income
- Unemployment Rate
Median household income is the most digestible way to understand how rich a place really is. The unemployment rate tries to capture the prospects for more people to become rich. If more people are employed, the richer the future looks.
After we collected the data for all 187 places with more than 5,000 people in Pennsylvania, we ranked each place from 1 to 187 for each of the criteria, with 1 being the richest.
We then averaged all the rankings for a place into a “Rich Score” with the place having the lowest overall Rich Score, Economy, crowned the “Richest City In Pennsylvania For 2019”.
You can learn more about the top ten below or skip to the end to see the rankings for all 187 places.
There You Have It – The Wealthiest Places In Pennsylvania For 2019
Like we said earlier, when we set out to identify the richest places in Pennsylvania, we weren’t sure what we’d encounter, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in Pennsylvania.
When you look at the data, the cities and places mentioned above meet the criteria for being at the very top of the income ladder for everyone that lives there.
If you’re curious enough, here are the poorest cities in Pennsylvania, according to data:
Poorest: Johnstown
2nd Poorest: Duquesne
3rd Poorest: Indiana
For more Pennsylvania reading, check out:
- 10 Best Places To Raise A Family In Pennsylvania
- These Are The 10 Best Counties To Live In Pennsylvania
- 10 Cheapest Places To Live In Pennsylvania
How Is The Area In ?
Detailed List Of The Richest Cities In Pennsylvania
| Rank | City | RichScore |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Economy | 10.67 |
| 2 | Collegeville | 11.83 |
| 3 | Jefferson Hills | 15.33 |
| 4 | Franklin Park | 16.0 |
| 5 | Fox Chapel | 17.33 |
| 6 | Souderton | 17.67 |
| 7 | Forest Hills | 19.33 |
| 8 | Doyle | 20.17 |
| 9 | Perkasie | 20.67 |
| 10 | Camp Hill | 21.0 |
| 11 | Swarthmore | 21.17 |
| 12 | Plum | 21.67 |
| 13 | White Oak | 22.83 |
| 14 | Downin | 23.0 |
| 15 | Lititz | 23.0 |
| 16 | Wyomissing | 23.17 |
| 17 | Oakmont | 27.33 |
| 18 | West View | 27.5 |
| 19 | Emmaus | 27.83 |
| 20 | Conshohocken | 30.83 |
| 21 | Mechanicsburg | 31.0 |
| 22 | Hollidaysburg | 32.0 |
| 23 | New Holland | 34.67 |
| 24 | Dormont | 37.17 |
| 25 | Baldwin | 37.67 |
| 26 | St. Marys | 38.0 |
| 27 | Northampton | 38.33 |
| 28 | Elizabet | 39.67 |
| 29 | Mount Joy | 40.17 |
| 30 | Kennett Square | 40.5 |
| 31 | Bellefonte | 41.17 |
| 32 | Ridley Park | 42.0 |
| 33 | Glenolden | 42.83 |
| 34 | New Cumberland | 42.83 |
| 35 | Hatboro | 46.5 |
| 36 | Lower Burrell | 47.33 |
| 37 | Pleasant Hills | 47.5 |
| 38 | Media | 48.0 |
| 39 | Lansdale | 48.33 |
| 40 | Selinsgrove | 48.67 |
| 41 | Norwood | 49.67 |
| 42 | Whitehall | 49.83 |
| 43 | Brookhaven | 50.17 |
| 44 | Brentwood | 50.17 |
| 45 | Grove City | 50.33 |
| 46 | Helle | 51.17 |
| 47 | Hermitage | 52.5 |
| 48 | Sharon Hill | 53.67 |
| 49 | Birdsboro | 53.67 |
| 50 | Phoenixville | 54.33 |
| 51 | Red Lion | 54.5 |
| 52 | Crafton | 54.5 |
| 53 | Lansdowne | 55.0 |
| 54 | Castle Shannon | 55.17 |
| 55 | South Williamsport | 56.17 |
| 56 | Catasauqua | 56.83 |
| 57 | Prospect Park | 57.83 |
| 58 | Moosic | 58.0 |
| 59 | Olyphant | 61.5 |
| 60 | Schuylkill Haven | 62.33 |
| 61 | Palmyra | 63.17 |
| 62 | Archbald | 63.33 |
| 63 | Ambler | 63.83 |
| 64 | Palmerton | 63.83 |
| 65 | Morrisville | 64.33 |
| 66 | Canonsburg | 65.33 |
| 67 | Shillington | 67.17 |
| 68 | Quake | 67.67 |
| 69 | Bristol | 68.17 |
| 70 | Ephrata | 68.17 |
| 71 | Old Forge | 70.67 |
| 72 | Exeter | 71.0 |
| 73 | Monaca | 73.5 |
| 74 | Wilson | 74.0 |
| 75 | Folcroft | 74.33 |
| 76 | Munhall | 76.33 |
| 77 | Lewisburg | 76.67 |
| 78 | Bellevue | 77.17 |
| 79 | Dunmore | 79.5 |
| 80 | Bethlehem | 79.5 |
| 81 | Dickson City | 80.67 |
| 82 | Bridgeville | 81.17 |
| 83 | Hanover | 81.33 |
| 84 | Clifton Heights | 81.83 |
| 85 | Kingston | 83.83 |
| 86 | Nazareth | 83.83 |
| 87 | Greenville | 86.33 |
| 88 | Carlisle | 86.67 |
| 89 | Milton | 87.17 |
| 90 | Turtle Creek | 87.83 |
| 91 | Jeannette | 88.0 |
| 92 | Corry | 89.67 |
| 93 | Pottsville | 89.83 |
| 94 | Blakely | 90.83 |
| 95 | West Chester | 93.33 |
| 96 | Middl | 97.33 |
| 97 | Chambersburg | 99.17 |
| 98 | Yeadon | 99.67 |
| 99 | Kut | 99.83 |
| 100 | Easton | 100.0 |
This is kind of a pointless list. The most affluent area in all of Pennsylvania – Philadelphia’s Main Line Suburbs – is not even represented, I assume due to your definition of “place”. Gladwynne, Villanova, Radnor, Devon… All of these places are far more affluent than any on your list.
Uh, Mt. Lebanon comes to mind. My hometown was thought to be pretty nice too.