12. Chicago, Illinois: more than $132,040
• How much money it takes to be in the top 1% in Illinois: $416,319
• Median income in Chicago: $66,020
• Metro-area population: 9.5 million
In the United States, the city of Chicago ranks number three among metro areas for gross domestic product, with an annual GDP in excess of $670 billion. Its economy is highly robust and extremely diversified. In fact, Chicago has been rated the “most balanced economy” in the United States due to its unusually high level of economic diversification. The city has also been named the fourth “most important business center” in the world according to the MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index. Chicago also boasts a high number of new or recently expanded corporate facilities. The metro area has the third-largest science and engineering workforce of any metro area in America. The city of Chicago is also home to 12 Fortune 500 companies and 17 Financial Times 500 companies. The city hosts two Dow 30 companies: aerospace titan Boeing (which moved its headquarters from Seattle to Chicago in 2001) and Kraft Heinz.