If you want to rise on the income ladder, apparently in Utah you have fewer rungs to climb.
A report unveiled last week by GOBankingRates indicates that Utah had the least income inequality among states.
Its researchers analyzed the latest publicly available income data and the Gini Index for all 50 states. The Gini Index summarizes the dispersion of income across the country, with a coefficient ranging from zero, indicating perfect equality where everyone receives an equal share, to 1, indicating perfect inequality where only one recipient or group of recipients receives all the income. Utah had the lowest index in the nation, at 0.427.
All data came from the 2023 American Community Survey, as conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Utah was followed, in order, by Alaska, New Hampshire, Wisconsin and Idaho. The worst income inequality exists in New York, followed by Connecticut, Louisiana, California and Massachusetts. New York is also one of five states where the top 5 percent earn $600,000 on average.
The analysis showed that despite Utah’s high rating, there is still a nearly $250,000 difference between the average income of the top 20 percent and bottom 20 percent. The bottom 20 percent have an income average of $24,390, while the top 20 percent have an average income of $276,288. The top 5 percent have an average income of $483,169, which is a 20.6 percent share of the state’s wealth.
Across 41 states, the bottom 20 percent make less than $20,000 on average. Meanwhile, the top 20 percent earn more than $250,000 in 25 states — accounting for half of America.
“While it’s not exactly a new development to hear income inequality persists in every state, recent data compiled by GOBankingRates reveals the lines between massive wealth and abject poverty are increasingly stark,” the report states.
The GOBankingRates analysis is available at https://www.gobankingrates.com/money/economy/how-much-income-inequality-exists-in-every-state/.
The GOBankingRates report reinforces similar studies the past few years. A 2014 study indicated that Salt Lake City had the highest score for intergenerational mobility out of the 50 largest community zones in the nation. The Census Bureau reported in 2019 that Utah had the most equally distributed incomes among U.S. states. The Utah Foundation in 2022 found that Utah ranked in the top third of the U.S. for income equality. A report from the Archbridge Institute in 2023 indicated that Utah led the nation in social mobility, boosted by business dynamism, parental engagement and stability, and charity.