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How North Dakota compares

North Dakota sits in the middle of the national pack: $76,657 at the median, ranking 28th of 51 and 5% below the $80,734 US figure. No cost-of-living adjustment is applied, so this compares dollars earned rather than what they buy.

A household needs around $129,026 to be in North Dakota's top quarter; nationwide the bar is $141,925. 10% of households here earn $200,000+, against 13% in the US overall.

For a more recent snapshot, the 2024 one-year survey shows $77,871 (+2% against the 2020–2024 average). We use the five-year figure elsewhere because it's more reliable for smaller areas.

Income thresholds in North Dakota

Roughly 10% of households in North Dakota sit in the $200,000-and-up bracket. By household income, the top 25% start at about $129,026, and the top 10% at about $196,694. The table marks lines that fall above $200,000 rather than guessing their value: the Census groups everyone above that amount together, so the exact top-5% and top-1% cutoffs can't be read from this data.

On North Dakota's distribution, the national median income of $80,734 corresponds to roughly the top 47%.

The top-quarter line is 1.69 times the state's midpoint income, narrower than the national ratio of 1.77 — a rough gauge of how stretched the upper half of the income distribution is.

Earnings by age

Looking at individual earners rather than households, the North Dakota median climbs 37% from the 25–34 group ($48,039) to the 45–54 group ($65,628). Across age groups, North Dakota averages +1% against the national medians; the widest gap is at 65+ ($30,225 versus $34,745 nationally). These figures are personal earnings (wages plus self-employment) from Census microdata, so they're lower than household income, which can combine several earners.

Married vs. single households

Married couples' median household income in North Dakota is $117,721; for single and non-family households it's $46,658. That 2.5× gap is mostly the second earner.

Highest- and lowest-income counties in North Dakota

County medians stretch from $42,083 in Sioux County up to $97,689 in Dunn County — a 2.3-fold range. The five highest-income counties are Dunn County, McKenzie County, Divide County, Burke County, and Foster County; the five lowest are Sioux County, Eddy County, Grant County, Pierce County, and Rolette County.

Of North Dakota's 53 counties, 13 have a median household income above the national $80,734 — 25% of them. The middle county on the list, Bowman County, sits at $72,109.

About these numbers

The household medians and thresholds use the 2020–2024 ACS five-year estimates; the age table is built from 18,826 North Dakota survey records of people 25 and older with earnings.