According to real estate blog Movoto, the average Alabamian has a net worth of $43,615, but the richest resident of the state is worth upwards of a billion dollars.
91-year-old Marguerite Harbert of Birmingham inherited an estimated $1.1 billion in 1995 from her late husband, John M. Harbert, who founded Harbert Corporation, one of the state’s most iconic companies.
According to Forbes, John turned $6,000 won playing craps into a construction empire that included water systems power plants, airports and a pipeline in South America. He also purchased coal reserves in the 1960s, then sold them at the height of an energy crisis in the 1970s, reaping a massive profit.
His widow has routinely made Forbes’ yearly list of the country’s wealthiest individuals, but even her massive fortune pales in comparison to the richest residents of other states around the U.S.
The map below, which was created Movoto, shows the richest individual in each state. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft founder Bill Gates tops the overall list. He’s worth an estimated $80 billion, followed by other notable names like Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett ($63 billion), Oracle founder Larry Ellison ($50 billion), and the Koch Brothers ($40+ billion a piece).
(Click map to enlarge)
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