Just looked into which American states are actually the wealthiest and the breakdown is pretty interesting. Everyone assumes it's obvious, but the metrics they use matter a lot - it's not just about median income, they factor in gross state product and poverty rates too.

California leads with a massive 3.6 trillion in state GDP, though median income there is only around 84k. New York's similar - huge economy at 2.53 trillion but income-wise it's not even top 5. Texas is wild too, 2.4 trillion in GSP but lower median income and higher poverty rate.

The wealthiest states when you look at actual household income are Maryland (91k median), New Jersey (89.7k), and Hawaii (88k). But that doesn't always match up with overall state wealth. Like Alaska has crazy high median income at 80k but much smaller total GDP.

I was surprised Delaware and Rhode Island made the top 20 wealthiest states - smaller economies but solid median incomes. Meanwhile some of the traditionally wealthy areas have higher poverty rates mixed in, which skews things. New Hampshire's interesting too - 83k median income, lowest poverty rate at 7.4%, but smaller overall economy.

The whole thing shows why 'rich state' is kind of a vague term. Are we talking total wealth, per-capita income, or economic output? Definitely changes which states actually rank as the wealthiest states depending on what you're measuring.