New Study Says Illinois Has a Surprising Number of Billionaires

Maybe it's just me, but I thought Illinois would have one or two billionaires.

It turns out I was in for a surprise.

Madison Trust Company has the inside scoop on the number of billionaires across the United States, and the figure for Illinois left me utterly astonished.

First, California and New York have the most billi0onaires in America with 186 and 135 respectively.

Florida and Texas are third and fourth on the list, with 78 and 73.

After the top four, the numbers do drop off a bit. But here's an interesting fact: Illinois is the only Midwest state that makes it into the top 10 list of states with the most billionaires.

The number is also pretty skewed per capita, with Washington D.C. having the most billionaires per million people, 16.3.

That's an insane number for D.C., but it's even more nutty when considering Wyoming, with 10.2 billionaires per million.

There are six billionaires in Wyoming, but the dense population is the reason for the big bump.

There are other reasons why so many billionaires are hanging out in Wyoming, which you can read about here.

Anyway, there are quite a few Illinois billionaires, with one billionaire for every 1.843 million people, totaling 23 billionaires in the state.

Lukas Walton is the wealthiest billionaire in Illinois, followed by Patrick Ryan and then Neil Bluhm.

Fourth on the list is Ty Warner. According to Stacker, the Beanie Baby guy is a billionaire with a net worth of $5.9B.