State tax collections per capita is a state government’s total tax revenue for the fiscal year divided by the state’s resident population. As of state fiscal year 2024, the figure ranges from roughly $2,500 in the lowest-collecting states to over $7,300 in the highest, with most states landing between $3,000 and $5,500. The spread reflects genuine differences in tax policy, economic makeup, and how much of government a state runs directly rather than leaving to cities and counties.
How the Number Is Calculated
The math has two inputs. The numerator is every tax the state government collected during its fiscal year. The denominator is the state’s resident population, typically pulled from mid-year Census Bureau estimates so every state uses a consistent count. Most states close their fiscal year on June 30, though a handful use September 30 or March 31.
The result is an average, not a bill. It does not reflect what any individual resident actually pays. A retired homeowner with modest income and a high-earning business owner in the same state pay very different amounts, but they count equally in the denominator.
What the Figure Deliberately Leaves Out
Two exclusions matter as much as what the number includes, because readers routinely assume they are baked in.
First, local taxes are not counted. Cities, counties, school districts, and special districts collect their own property taxes, sales taxes, and sometimes income taxes, and none of that flows into the state per capita figure. A state with low state-level collections may have heavy local property and sales taxes that make up the difference.
Second, non-tax revenue is stripped out entirely. Federal grants alone account for roughly 27 percent of combined state and local revenue, and taxes of all kinds represent only about half of total government revenue once you add in fees, fines, and investment income. The per capita figure isolates tax revenue collected by the state itself, nothing else.
Which Taxes Count Toward the Total
The numerator pulls from every tax a state government imposes. The Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections groups these into five broad categories with up to 25 subcategories, creating a uniform framework for state-to-state comparisons.1U.S. Census Bureau. Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections
Individual and Corporate Income Taxes
Individual income taxes are the single largest source of state tax revenue for most states. Eight states skip the individual income tax altogether, which pushes their per capita collections lower and forces them to lean on sales taxes, excise taxes, or other revenue sources.2Tax Foundation. State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets, 2025 Corporate income taxes on business profits add a smaller but meaningful share.
General Sales and Excise Taxes
General sales taxes on retail purchases are the backbone of revenue in states without an income tax. On top of that, states levy excise taxes on specific goods including gasoline, cigarettes, and alcohol. The per-unit rates vary widely between states, so the same product can generate very different revenue depending on where it is sold.3Tax Foundation. 2025 Gas Taxes by State4Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. STATE System Excise Tax Fact Sheet
Severance, Estate, and Other Taxes
About 33 states impose severance taxes on the extraction of natural resources like oil, gas, and coal. In most states these generate modest revenue, but in resource-rich areas they can account for over 10 percent of total state and local revenue.5Tax Policy Center. How Do State and Local Severance Taxes Work? A smaller number of states collect estate or inheritance taxes. Insurance premium taxes, typically 2 to 3 percent on premiums written within the state, show up in every state’s total. License fees for vehicles and professional certifications, along with real estate transfer taxes, also feed the aggregate.
Why the Numbers Vary So Widely Between States
The gap between a state collecting $2,500 per person and one collecting $7,300 is enormous, and no single factor explains it. Several drivers overlap.
Tax Structure Choices
States that skip the income tax cluster near the bottom of per capita collections because they are choosing not to tap the largest revenue source available. Some make it up with higher sales taxes, but sales taxes rarely generate the same volume as a broad income tax applied to a wealthy population. States with high income tax rates and many high earners collect more per capita even when their sales and excise taxes are unremarkable. Under steeply progressive rate structures, a small share of top earners can produce a disproportionate share of total revenue.
Tourism and Tax Exporting
States with major tourism industries collect large amounts of sales, lodging, and rental car taxes from visitors who do not live there. Those taxes flow into the revenue total, but the visitors do not appear in the population denominator, so the per capita figure gets inflated. A state where 30 million tourists a year pay tax on hotels, restaurants, and attractions will report higher per capita collections than its residents actually experience. This is sometimes called tax exporting, and it is one reason coastal and entertainment-heavy states can fund services without taxing residents as heavily as the per capita number suggests.
Natural Resource Windfalls
Severance taxes can supercharge per capita collections in states with small populations and large reserves. When commodity prices spike, severance revenue can surge by billions in a single year, and dividing that windfall by a small population produces statistical outliers. It also makes those states’ numbers volatile. A drop in oil prices can pull collections down within a year or two.
The State-Local Split
How a state divides fiscal responsibilities with its local governments is one of the most underappreciated drivers of variation. A state that funds K-12 education primarily through state revenue will have higher state-level collections than one that pushes education costs onto county property taxes. The total tax burden on residents may be similar in both places, but the state-level per capita figure looks very different. This structural choice alone can shift a state’s ranking by dozens of positions without changing what any resident actually pays.
State-Only vs. Combined State-and-Local Collections
Per capita state tax collections and total tax burden measure different things, and confusing them leads to bad conclusions. The state figure counts only revenue flowing to the state government. It ignores local property taxes, local sales taxes, local income taxes, and every fee or charge imposed by cities, counties, and special districts.
When you combine state and local tax collections, the national average jumps considerably. For fiscal year 2022, the most recent year with combined data, the average state and local tax collection per capita was $7,109.6Tax Foundation. State and Local Tax Collections Per Capita by State That figure captures property taxes, which are collected overwhelmingly at the local level and represent a huge share of the tax landscape in many parts of the country.
A state ranking near the bottom in state-only per capita collections might rank much higher once local taxes are added in. The reverse also happens: a state with high state-level collections that runs most functions centrally may have minimal local taxes, so its combined figure is closer to the national average than the state number alone suggests. To compare how heavily different states tax their residents, use the combined state-and-local number, not the state figure in isolation.
Where to Find the Official Numbers
The primary source for consistent, comparable data across all 50 states is the Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections, which has published data continuously since 1951. The survey’s five broad categories and up to 25 subcategories make it possible to compare not just totals but specific revenue streams like individual income taxes or motor fuel excise taxes.1U.S. Census Bureau. Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections As of 2026, the most recent complete dataset covers state fiscal year 2024, and the downloadable files include detailed breakdowns by state and tax type going back decades.7United States Census Bureau. Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections Datasets
For state-specific detail, individual departments of revenue publish their own financial reports, often with more granular breakdowns than the Census survey provides. Most states also produce an Annual Comprehensive Financial Report that includes audited statements and supplementary data on tax receipts, useful when you want to see how collections tracked against projections for a given year.
What the Number Cannot Tell You
Per capita state tax collections are a starting point, not a verdict. A state with high per capita collections is not necessarily taxing its residents more heavily. It might be exporting taxes to tourists, riding a resource extraction windfall, or simply running more services at the state level. A state with low per capita collections is not necessarily a low-tax place if its counties and cities impose heavy property and local sales taxes.
Economists sometimes use a concept called tax effort to adjust for these distortions. Tax effort compares what a state actually collects against what it could theoretically collect given its economic base. A wealthy state pulling in a modest share of its potential revenue shows low tax effort even if its per capita collections look high. A less wealthy state taxing most of what it can shows high tax effort even with lower per capita numbers. The per capita figure tells you how much money flows in. Tax effort tells you how hard the state is working to bring it in. A full picture needs both.