Photo by Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie.

According to data published by the Census Bureau, D.C. is the national leader in the percentage of households that earn over $200,000 a year. The rest of the metropolitan area is not doing too shabby either: Maryland and Virginia place fourth and seventh, respectively.

The data reports that 8.4 percent of the approximately 250,000 households in D.C. reported income of over $200K, nearly double the national average of 3.8 percent. Obviously, the data is skewed due to the small, urban population; D.C. also had one of the lowest median incomes of the top 10 — $53,865.

The relatively low median income merely reasserts the unsurprising income inequality that exists in D.C., a finding backed by the Census’ report that the District had the highest Gini coefficient — a metric which measures the level of income inequality. These figures, combined with next year’s expected $400 million-plus budget shortfall, likely gives the D.C. Council reason to look more carefully at proposals to increase tax rates on households making over $100,000 per year.