Virginia

Population: 8.4 million 2015 Gross state Product: $480 billion (1.4% Growth) GSP Per capita: $57,236 (ranks no. 17 nationwide) richest: Jacqueline mars $27 billion

FOR more THAN a century, some of america’s guiltiest pleasures—m&ms, Milky way, twix—have fattened the fortunes of Jacqueline and her family’s Mars inc. the company is now upping its bet on another soft spot for many people: their pets. it agreed last month to pay $7.7 billion for vca, an operator of some 800 animal hospitals and 137 pet day-care centers. Mars already owns five billiondollar pet brands, including pedigree and whiskas.

now 77, Jacqueline joined the intensely private Mars in 1982, seven decades after her grandfather had begun cooking up candy in his home kitchen. having overseen new food products for the company, she retired in 2001. she left the board last year but remains a director of seven organizations, including the washington national opera and the smithsonian institution. u.s. equestrian olympians have trained at her farm, riding her horses to medals in 1996 and 2000. in 2013 the publicity-shy heiress drove her suv into a minivan, accidentally killing an 86-year-old woman and an unborn child. she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor reckless driving, lost her license for six months and paid a $2,500 fine.