Swamp’s gold: 6 of 10 richest counties in America are DC suburbs, 10 of the top 20

The No. 1 richest county in America is Loudoun County, Va., home to Dulles International Airport and hundreds of federal contractors and agencies. It is also the site of several mega data centers helped into the county by former Gov. Terry McAuliffe and current Gov. Ralph Northam.

In Loudoun, the median income was $129,588, nearly seven times higher than the lowest income county, McCreary County, Ky., which logged in at $19,264.

Of the top 20 wealthiest counties in the country, half are Washington suburbs.

The area is not a manufacturing or Internet hub, and instead is the home of much of the federal government.

And it shouldn’t end. Federal employment has held steady even during the past job downturn and Virginia wooed Amazon to Arlington County, No. 5 on the Census list.

Federal workers in the Washington area earn an average of about $110,000 a year, about $25,000 more than the average federal salary. And that is before benefits like 40 days off, 18 percent retirement matching, and ample health care insurance choices are added in.

Many households have two federal workers, and many more have former federal workers receiving a pension now working for federal contractors, “double-dipping,” so to speak.

As the White House has threatened a partial government shutdown over the lack of border wall funding, the local media has been filled with sad stories that local federal workers won’t be able to pay their bills or buy Christmas presents.

In every past shutdown, legislation has been passed to provide back pay to furloughed workers.

According to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey’s new five-year estimates, the top 10 richest counties were: