PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon's ranks of residents making a million-plus increased by nearly 2,000 between 2015 and 2020, including 800 new high-earners calling the state home between 2019 and 2020.
There were 5,520 Oregonians with incomes of $1 million or more who filed 2020 tax returns. That was up by 790 filers from the year before, or 16.7%. From 2015 to 2020, the state added 1,940 filers in the million-plus club, a 54.19% increase.
The number Oregon top earners grew faster than the national rate. Overall, there was a 9.78% increase in filers in the U.S. reporting a million-plus between 2019 and 2020 and a 38.82% increase from 2015 to 2020.
In Oregon, the wealthy are not the 1 percent. Million-dollar earners make up only 0.26% of tax filers, compared with 0.37% nationwide.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the actual 1 percent in Oregon account for 16.6% of income earned in the state and make 19.7 times as much as the rest of the state population.
The numbers are according to new data from the Internal Revenue Service that breaks down the number of filers based on adjusted gross income.
Fueled by consistent gains in the job market and a steady climb on Wall Street, the number of $1 million earners grew by 38.8% nationally between 2015 and 2020 and by 9.8% between 2019 and 2020.
The data doesn't take into account home equity, but the acceleration of home prices could have played a role in the surge of million-dollar earners due to income from the sale of properties.
The Portland Business Journal, a KGW news partner, has more information on million-dollar earners, as well as a look at the top-ranking states and other data.
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