Best States for Accountants and Auditors in 2026

Across these 10 states, CareerGPS Pro’s rankings highlight different mixes of salary levels, employment counts, and overall Geography Scores rather than a single uniform pattern. All top 10 states share the same supplied 4.6% projected growth rate for accountants and auditors, so differences in the rankings come from other factors in the CareerGPS methodology. New York has the highest median salary in the group, yet California holds the #1 ranking and the highest CareerGPS Geography Score, illustrating that salary alone does not determine a state’s overall position in the results. Employment counts also vary substantially. California’s 175,360 accountants and auditors represent the largest supplied state employment figure in this top 10 set, while Rhode Island’s 6,570 is the smallest. Several states, including Texas and New York, combine six-figure or near-six-figure salaries with large employment bases, but they land in different places in the rankings because the CareerGPS Geography Score weights multiple metrics. When compared with the national benchmark, many of these top states show higher median salaries, while Texas stands out as the only top-10 state with a median salary below the national median. The data underscores that CareerGPS Pro’s state rankings integrate salary, employment, growth, and other factors into a single Geography Score rather than focusing on any one measure in isolation.

For accountants and auditors nationwide, CareerGPS Pro reports a 2026 median annual salary of $83,680 and total employment of 1,449,500. Within the top 10 states, several have median salaries above this national figure. New York’s median of $102,640, Massachusetts at $99,460, New Jersey at $100,830, Connecticut at $97,550, California at $97,050, Colorado at $97,030, Washington at $96,550, Rhode Island at $95,820, and Virginia at $93,290 all exceed the national median. Texas is the one top-10 state with a median salary of $80,920, which is below the national benchmark. California’s employment of 175,360 accountants and auditors is higher than the national median salary benchmark in dollar terms but is best understood as a distinct employment count within the total national employment of 1,449,500. Among this top 10 group, California’s employment count is substantially larger than that of any other listed state, while Rhode Island’s 6,570 accountants and auditors represent the smallest employment figure in the set.

Among the top 10 states, New York has the highest reported median salary for accountants and auditors at $102,640. New Jersey’s $100,830 and Massachusetts’s $99,460 also exceed the $97,550 level in Connecticut and the $97,050 and $97,030 medians in California and Colorado. Washington’s $96,550, Rhode Island’s $95,820, and Virginia’s $93,290 complete the group of top-10 states with median salaries above the national median. Texas is notable for combining a top-10 ranking with the lowest median salary in this group at $80,920. This salary is lower than the national median of $83,680 and lower than every other top-ranked state’s median salary. These figures show that while high salaries are common among the top 10 states, they are not uniform. CareerGPS Pro’s rankings include states ranging from New York’s six-figure median down to Texas’s median below the national benchmark, indicating that multiple factors feed into each state’s Geography Score.

Employment counts for accountants and auditors vary widely among the top-ranked states. California’s 175,360 accountants and auditors represent the largest employment figure in this group, significantly exceeding New York’s 109,830 and Texas’s 116,470. Outside these three larger employment markets, the remaining top states show smaller employment counts. Massachusetts reports 46,230 accountants and auditors, Virginia has 47,100, New Jersey has 42,250, Colorado has 35,410, Washington has 34,740, Connecticut has 16,770, and Rhode Island has 6,570. These differences illustrate that top rankings in the CareerGPS Pro results can correspond to very different employment scales—from California’s six-figure employment count down to Rhode Island’s smaller total—without implying anything about the number of openings or employer count in any given state.

The CareerGPS Geography Score provides a combined view of each state’s conditions for accountants and auditors. In this top-10 list, California ranks #1 with the highest Geography Score of 81.48. New York ranks #2 with a Geography Score of 74.88, followed by Massachusetts at #3 with 60.62 and New Jersey at #4 with 60.13. Colorado (#5) and Washington (#6) have mid-50s Geography Scores at 54.82 and 54.25, respectively. Texas ranks #7 with a Geography Score of 52.53, and Virginia ranks #8 at 52.11, placing them close together in the overall results. Connecticut and Rhode Island complete the top 10 with lower Geography Scores relative to the other states in this list. Connecticut ranks #9 with a score of 47.75, while Rhode Island ranks #10 with 46.45. These rankings show that New York’s top median salary does not automatically translate into the #1 overall position, and that states can be adjacent in rank while having different salary and employment profiles.

All 10 top-ranked states have the same supplied projected growth rate of 4.6% for accountants and auditors in 2026. This uniform figure means the growth metric does not distinguish one top-10 state from another in this dataset. Because growth is identical across these states, the differences in CareerGPS Geography Scores and rankings must reflect other elements in the scoring methodology, such as salary levels, employment counts, or additional factors not itemized here. For decision-making, this shared 4.6% projection suggests that when comparing these top states, accountants and auditors may focus more on variations in salary, employment, and Geography Scores rather than on differences in the supplied growth rate, since those differences are not present in this particular group of states.

CareerGPS Pro uses authoritative labor-market data for accountants and auditors (SOC 13-2011) and applies its CareerGPS Geography Score to compare states. The Geography Score reflects how each state performs across multiple dimensions, including compensation, employment, and the supplied growth outlook. For this article, we focus on the 10 highest-ranked states for accountants and auditors in 2026 and compare them with the national medians for salary and employment. All stated growth figures and scores come directly from CareerGPS Pro’s structured data. These rankings are intended as a structured comparison tool and should be considered alongside personal factors such as preferred locations, career stage, and non-labor-market priorities, which are outside the scope of this dataset.