MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – A new study has cited Utah as the fourth wealthiest state in the nation in terms of earnings and purchasing power.
That research was conducting by analysts at Dancing Numbers, a Quickbooks data automation platform that is trusted by more than 50,000 finance professionals nationwide.
“Understanding true wealth means looking at the complete picture,” according to Punit K. Jindal, the founder of Dancing Numbers.
“Income figures tell only part of the story. What matters is purchasing power, meaning how much money residents actually have left after meeting their basic needs.”
Jindal’s researchers found that Utahns enjoyed a median household income $104,000 with the lowest annual living costs among the top five U.S. states at $49,737.
This leaves the average Beehive State family with more than $54,000 in disposable income.
Utah residents also benefit from the state’s growing technology sector – nicknamed “Silicon Slopes” – which has attracted tech giants and new startups, boosting both income levels and economic output.
“Utah represents one of the best value propositions in America,” Jindal emphasizes. “Resident can earn six figures while enjoying significantly lower costs than that of comparable tech hubs.”
To determine which states are genuinely the richest, Dancing Numbers analyzed data from the U.S. Federal Reserve, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and Living Wage Calculator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The study examined four key indicators: median household income, gross domestic product per capita, annual cost of living and disposable income.
Joining Utah in the top five ranking of wealthiest states are California, New Hampshire, Maryland and Colorado.
Naturally, California claimed the top spot in the national ranking, with a staggering GDP rate of more than $4 million per capita, compared to Utah’s GDP rate of about $300,000.
While acknowledging that state’s enormous economic output, Jindal notes that California families also face some of the nation’s highest costs for housing, transportation and basic necessities while earning a median household income of only $100,000, which is actually less than that of Utah families.
The Dancing Numbers study confirmed another recent analysis of Utah’s thriving economy by the Leaders Institute of Arlington, TX. That research found that the Beehive State was the first of 50 states in terms of its numbers of computer science students, at 1,244.7 per 100,000 of its population.
Like the Dancing Numbers research, that study praised Utah’s “Silicon Slopes” area of the Wasatch Front, which was also seen as a major western technology hub, with over 1,000 companies and start-up within its ecosystem. Those include tech giants Adobe in Salt Lake City as well as Oracle and Microsoft in nearby Lehi.
While the Leaders Institute study noted that Utah lags slightly behind other top states in workforce size and funding, it noted that the Beehive State is poised to take off in artificial intelligence development in terms of software, analytics and automation in the next decade thanks to its booming economic base.
“These wealth rankings reveal something many Americans intuitively understand, but don’t always see in data,” Jindal explains, “namely that where you live matters as much as what you earn.
“A $120,000 salary means something completely different in San Francisco versus Salt Lake City.”
More information about the Dancing Number study can be found by going online to https://dancingnumbers.com/
Dancing Numbers is a specialized data automation add-on for QuickBooks Desktop and Online, providing seamless bulk import, export and deletion of transactions and lists.