They are separated by 89 miles and more than $100,000. They are Georgia’s richest and poorest cities, according to Forbes.
Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey five-year estimates, Forbes analyzed nearly 30,000 cities, towns, villages, boroughs and Census-Designated Places in terms of their median household income and mean household income. Combining those, Forbes generated lists of the richest city and poorest city in each state.
Georgia’s richest city is home to historical buildings once owned by some of Atlanta’s most influential families.
Druid Hills is technically not a city, but rather a census-designated place. Still, Forbes found, it has a median household income of $129,740 and a mean household income of $203,775.
The mean is the average, found by adding all incomes together and then dividing by the number of incomes. The median is the middle value when incomes are ordered from least to greatest.
Last summer, “Rest Haven,” the former home of William Candler, the youngest son of Coca-Cola founder Asa Candler, went on the market for $3.59 million. It was designed by famed Atlanta architect Neel Reid in 1918.
There are seven cities in which the median household income is more than $250,000 Forbes wrote. Many of the richest cities are suburbs of major cities, such as Winnetka, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago and home to the iconic house in “Home Alone.”
Georgia’s poorest city is just 1½ hours from Druid Hills up Interstate 85.
Royston, Forbes found, has a median household income of $21,125 and a mean household income of $31,383, more than $100,000 less than Druid Hills.
Royston is a small town, but it has a claim to fame. Royston is the hometown of Major League Baseball great Ty Cobb and is now the home of Cobb statue that was once outside Turner Field. Cobb is buried in Royston.
There are six cities where the median household income is less than $20,000: Livingston, Alabama; Hawaiian Ocean View, Hawaii; Homer, Louisiana; Highland Park, Michigan; Albany, Kentucky; and Allendale, South Carolina. Four of those six are in the South.
For Forbes’ full list of richest and poorest cities in each state, click here.
About the Author
