Hawai'i is no longer at the top of the heap when it comes to millionaire households.

The number of millionaire households in Hawai'i slipped last year, at least according to a marketing company that tracks the buying habits of high net worth individuals.

But Hawai'i still remains among the top five states in terms of percentage of millionaire households compared to the rest of the country.

The research by Phoenix Marketing International, a Rhinebeck, N.Y.-based firm, shows Hawai'i had 29,365 millionaire households last year, down slightly from 29,423 in 2006.

The decline, along with increases in millionaires living elsewhere, meant Hawai'i fell to fifth on the list from the No. 1 spot it occupied in 2005 and 2006 in terms of percentage of households. New Jersey, Maryland and Connecticut pulled past the Aloha State with higher percentages. Millionaires lived in 6.69 percent of Hawai'i's 438,893 households, Phoenix said.

"Traditional East Coast concentrations of wealth have continued to outperform most of the rest of the country," David Thompson, managing director of the Phoenix Affluent Practice, said in a press statement.

"This is a function of three factors: high levels of education, access to top-paying jobs in finance and technology and a stock market that has advanced over the past four years."

The Phoenix study excludes real estate holdings, but the firm has previously noted that people who live in estates and mansions typically have big bank accounts. Phoenix tallies its households with $1 million or more in "liquid assets" — cash, stocks, bonds, mutual funds and annuities.

Some of Hawai'i's ranking may be attributed to wealthy individuals retiring to the state after making their fortune elsewhere. These include celebrities, refugees from Silicon Valley and people who've cashed out on Wall Street.

The state also does well when it comes to household income in rankings by the U.S. Census Bureau, which in 2006 determined Hawai'i's median household income was $61,160. That ranked the state fourth in the nation, behind some familiar names — Maryland, New Jersey and Connecticut.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Census Bureau ranks Hawai'i as having among the lowest poverty rates in the nation. In 2006, its rate was 9.3 percent, or 4 percentage points lower than the national average.

Mississippi had the highest poverty rate at 21.1 percent.

It also had the lowest percentage of millionaire households in Phoenix Marketing's ranking at 3.85 percent.

Reach Greg Wiles at gwiles@honoluluadvertiser.com.