PHOENIX — Arizona’s median household income made one of the nation’s biggest leaps over the last five decades, a recently released report has found.
In the Grand Canyon State, that income shot up 60.2% between 1970 and 2023, according to findings by the Urban Institute. In inflation-adjusted dollars, Arizona’s median income jumped from $48,251 to $77,315, bringing the state’s ranking in that measure up 24 places among states from No. 44 in 1970 to No. 20 in 2023.
The jump was the sixth-highest among all states, with Arizona being surpassed only by Utah (77.6%), Colorado (66.6%), New Hampshire (62.2%), California (61%), and Virginia (61%). These six states — all but two of them in the West — handily outgrew all others, with the next highest growth rate in the nation being Texas and Idaho, which made 48.5% and 48% income gains, respectively.
