“Billionaire” evokes tech founders such as Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates, but there is a large and growing group of people worth at least $1 billion in small towns and big cities that rarely make the headlines.

There were 1,135 billionaires in the U.S. as of 2024—up from 927 in 2020, according to data from Altrata, a wealth intelligence firm. The biggest concentration, 255 of them, is in California. But the super rich are also behind businesses in places such as Ridgeland, Miss., and Waunakee, Wisc. Collectively, these people are worth about $5.7 trillion, according to Altrata’s estimates.