US Income Inequality
Is at the Highest Level
in 50 Years According to data from the
U.S. Census Bureau, there
was an income inequality
uptick of .003 from 2017 to 2018. The Gini Index measures income
on a scale of zero to one, with
zero being perfectly equal and
one being perfectly unequal. In the U.S. in 2018,
the Gini Index measured 0.485. At the same time,
U.S. median household
income increased to $62,000. The median household income
increase was the smallest of
the past three years and
was distributed unevenly. Hector Sandoval, Economist at the University of Florida, via NBC News Six states saw the biggest increase of
income inequality: Alabama, Arkansas,
Kansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire and New Mexico. Areas with the most wealth — Washington D.C.
and New York — and the most poverty —
Louisiana and Puerto Rico — had the
highest rates of income inequality. The states with the
most income equality were
North and South Dakota,
Iowa, Alaska and Utah.