Wealthy American households have increased in number by more than 51 percent in the past four years, according to a meta-analysis of conducted by the New-York based Luxury Institute’s Luxury Board staff.

Households with an annual income of $150,000 or more have risen to 8 million in 2006 from approximately 5 million in 2002. This represents 7 percent (about 8 million) of American households according to this wealth segment analysis of the just-released 2006 American Community Survey data, from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Among $150,000 U.S. households, 6.5 million are white, 372,000 are Hispanic, 312,000 are African-American, and 527,000 are Asian. California is the wealthiest state with 1.3 million wealthy households, followed by New York, with 668,000. Still, Washington, D.C. has the highest percentage of citizens who are wealthy, followed by New Jersey and Connecticut. It’s hard to beat the New York Metro area for concentration of wealthy consumers, at 885,000, followed by Los Angeles at 450,000.

JCK