Income inequality last year rose in 15 states

The nation became more unequal last year.

The Gini Index, a measure of income inequality, was higher, in a statistically significant way, in 2013 than in 2012, rising from 0.476 to 0.481, according to a new Census Bureau report. A score of zero suggests perfect equality where all households have equal income, while a score of one suggests perfect inequality, where one household has it all, and the rest have none.

Alaska was the only state to see its Gini Index score decline, while 15 states posted increases. D.C. and the remaining 34 states saw no change. The 15 states that saw income inequality rise last year were: Arizona, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.

Those results reflect a multi-year trend: Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve reported that “[o]nly families at the very top of the income distribution saw widespread income gains between 2010 and 2013.”


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