Income Inequality Is Growing Across the U.S. — Here’s How Bad it Is In Every State
The gap between rich Americans and poor Americans has been a cause for concern in the United States for decades.
But although that gap has gotten significantly worse since the 1970s, income inequality is not the same across each state.
Careers data site Zippia used data from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey to rank all 50 states by income inequality.
The states are ranked by their Gini coefficient, a commonly used metric that quantifies income inequality on a scale from one to 100. The lower the score, the more equal the income distribution — a score of 100 would mean that one person controls all the wealth in an economy.
As a country, the US fares pretty poorly when it comes to income inequality: according to the CIA Factbook, the US has the 40th highest level of inequality out of 150 countries — around the same level as Jamaica, Peru, and Cameroon.
Within the US, there are some clear trends: the states with the least inequality tended to be western states and states with low populations, while the most inequality occurred in high-population states and southern states.
The results line up with previous research that showed that people in the South have much lower odds of moving from the lowest income bracket to the highest, and that people in the West have the best chances of doing the same.
Analysis from political geographer Richard Morrill showed that areas like the South, where income inequality was more pronounced, also have high minority populations. Meanwhile, heavily homogenous areas with high Germanic and Scandinavian populations — like the West — tended to have the most income equality, he found.
Read on to see how your state stacks up against the rest:
50. Alaska
Gini coefficient: 41.74
49. Utah
Gini coefficient: 42.61
48. Wyoming
Gini coefficient: 42.79
47. New Hampshire
Gini coefficient: 43.44
46. Hawaii
Gini coefficient: 43.69
45. Nebraska
Gini coefficient: 44.20
44. Iowa
Gini coefficient: 44.22
T-42. Vermont
Gini coefficient: 44.35
T-42. Wisconsin
Gini coefficient: 44.35
41. South Dakota
Gini coefficient: 44.38
40. Idaho
Gini coefficient: 44.57
39. Delaware
Gini coefficient: 44.88
38. Minnesota
Gini coefficient: 44.90
37. Indiana
Gini coefficient: 44.94
36. Maryland
Gini coefficient: 45.13
35. Maine
Gini coefficient: 45.15
34. Nevada
Gini coefficient: 45.22
33. Kansas
Gini coefficient: 45.55
32. Washington
Gini coefficient: 45.60
31. North Dakota
Gini coefficient: 45.86
30. Montana
Gini coefficient: 45.87
29. Colorado
Gini coefficient: 45.90
28. Oregon
Gini coefficient: 46.12
27. West Virginia
Gini coefficient: 46.21
26. Missouri
Gini coefficient: 46.32
25. Ohio
Gini coefficient: 46.41
24. Michigan
Gini coefficient: 46.48
23. Oklahoma
Gini coefficient: 46.52
22. Virginia
Gini coefficient: 46.73
21. Pennsylvania
Gini coefficient: 46.80
20. Arizona
Gini coefficient: 46.82
19. South Carolina
Gini coefficient: 46.90
18. Arkansas
Gini coefficient: 47.08
17. Rhode Island
Gini coefficient: 47.38
16. Kentucky
Gini coefficient: 47.41
15. North Carolina
Gini coefficient: 47.48
14. New Mexico
Gini coefficient: 47.54
13. Alabama
Gini coefficient: 47.69
12. New Jersey
Gini coefficient: 47.82
11. Tennessee
Gini coefficient: 47.86
10. Illinois
Gini coefficient: 47.89
9. Mississippi
Gini coefficient: 47.99
8. Texas
Gini coefficient: 48.03
7. Georgia
Gini coefficient: 48.16
6. Massachusetts
Gini coefficient: 48.26
5. Florida
Gini coefficient: 48.52
4. California
Gini coefficient: 48.80
3. Louisiana
Gini coefficient: 49.03
2. Connecticut
Gini coefficient: 49.47
1. New York
Gini coefficient: 51.02
This article originally appeared in BusinessInsider.com.