Where the Richest Business Owners in America Live: 2026 Study
Sam's List Editorial | 2026-08-06
Most people assume the country's wealthiest business owners are packed into a few expensive coastal cities. Federal tax data says otherwise. To find where owning a business pays off the most, Sam's List ranked all 387 U.S. metro areas by the average income of their business owners, drawn straight from IRS tax returns. Key findings: America's highest-earning business owners are in Naples, Florida. The Naples metro area's business owners report an average of $236,699 in business income, more than $42,000 ahead of second-place Sioux City and over two and a half times the typical metro. Small metros out-earn the biggest cities. Sioux City, IA ($194,454), Midland, TX ($188,085), and Charleston, SC ($172,055) fill out the vetted of the list, while New York ranks 79th, Los Angeles 63rd, and Chicago 86th. The typical metro sits far behind the leaders. The average business owner earns $95,719 nationally. The lowest-earning metros are in California's Central Valley. Hanford ranks last of all 387 at $31,086, followed by Visalia ($31,962) and Merced ($36,809). The metros where business owners earn the most The Naples metro area leads by a wide margin. Its business owners report an average of $236,699 in business income, more than $42,000 clear of any other metro. Sioux City, Midland, and Charleston follow, with Knoxville and Reno rounding out the vetted six. The pattern runs down the whole list: mid-size metros in the heartland and the Sun Belt out-earn the coastal giants. Boston (9th) and Houston (18th) are the only large metros near the vetted. San Francisco lands 43rd, while New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago all fall outside the vetted 60. Rank Metro State Avg. Business Income Per Owner 1 Naples Florida $236,699 2 Sioux City Iowa $194,454 3 Midland Texas $188,085 4 Charleston South Carolina $172,055 5 Knoxville Tennessee $171,642 6 Reno Nevada $167,492 7 Elkhart Indiana $164,499 8 Dalton Georgia $164,362 9 Boston Massachusetts $163,824 10 Birmingham Alabama $162,587 The most entrepreneurial metros The ranking above measures how much business owners earn. A separate question is how many of them there are. Counting the share of tax returns that report business income shows where business ownership is most common. Naples leads here too. Business income shows up on 15.5% of tax returns in the metro, the highest rate in the country, followed by Bozeman at 13.7% and St. George at 12.4%. Florida and Mountain West metros fill most of the list, with Miami and Boulder close behind. Naples is the only metro to vetted both the earnings and the ownership-rate rankings. Rank Metro State...
