2025-12-08
Mapping US Income Inequality By State
Mapping US Income Inequality By State The wealth of America’s top 1% sits around $52 trillion today, rising by $4 trillion over the year.Overall, the top 1% of U.S. earners need to make around $800,000 or more in salary per household. Meanwhile, about 30% of American households earned less than $50,000 last year, highlighting clear divides in wage distribution across the country.This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld, shows income inequality by state, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau.The Spectrum of Income Inequality in AmericaIn 2024, the U.S. Gini coefficient was 0.48, representing a high degree of inequality.Effectively, a score of one means that a single person would earn all of the income, and 0 would represent perfect equality. Last year, the top 20% of earners pocketed 52.2% of the country’s income according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In contrast, the bottom fifth of earners received just 3.1%.Yet, income is distributed differently across states. Last year, income inequality was the most severe in Washington, D.C. and New York, each with a 0.52 Gini index score.StateGini Coefficient 2024District of Columbia0.52New York0.52Connecticut0.50Louisiana0.49California0.49Massachusetts0.48Illinois0.48Florida0.48Texas0.48North Carolina0.48Mississippi0.48Pennsylvania0.47Tennessee0.47Alabama0.47Georgia0.47Washington0.47New Mexico0.47Arkansas0.47Rhode Island0.47New Jersey0.47Kentucky0.47Oklahoma0.47Virginia0.47Michigan0.47West Virginia0.47South Carolina0.47Nevada0.47Missouri0.46Ohio0.46Arizona0.46Colorado0.46Wyoming0.46Montana0.46North Dakota0.46Maine0.46Maryland0.46Kansas0.46Oregon0.46Vermont0.46Hawaii0.45Indiana0.45Minnesota0.45Delaware0.45New Hampshire0.45Nebraska0.45South Dakota0.44Wisconsin0.44Alaska0.44Iowa0.44Idaho0.43Utah0.42In Washington, D.C. the top 20% of earners made 27 times more than the bottom 20% in 2023 according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, which is the highest ratio of any state between the top and bottom quintiles.New York, on the other hand, is home to more billionaires than any other state except for California, creating huge disparities in income. Since 2019, real wage growth among the Big Apple’s top 3% soared 34.5%, more than triple all other income tiers.Falling near the U.S. average are Florida, Texas, and Massachusetts, providing a more representative picture of income inequality in the country.In comparison, Utah ranks lowest overall, a position it has regularly held for some time. Utah has the sixth-highest employment share (65.4%) in the country, keeping average family incomes more even.Along with this, Utah has one of the best social mobility index scores nationwide, likely influenced by narrower wage disparities.To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on wealth inequality by country in 2025. Tyler DurdenSun, 12/07/2025 - 21:35
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