City With Worst Income Inequality In Wisconsin Wisconsin

The United States has some of the highest levels of income and wealth inequality in the world. Data from the U.S. Federal Reserve shows that the richest 10% of Americans control $ 93.8 trillion, more than double the $ 40.3 trillion held by the remaining 90% of Americans.

The gap between income and wealth only seems to be widening. A January 2020 report released by the Pew Research Center found that over the past four decades, income growth for the top 5% of families in terms of income has far outpaced income growth for families in the lower strata. .

In a country as large as the United States, one can expect varying levels of income inequality, and in a few parts of the country, extreme wealth and extreme poverty coexist. In almost every state, there is at least one city where income inequality is much more pronounced than it is on the national average.

Based on the Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality expressed on a scale of 0 to 1 where 0 represents perfect equality and 1 represents the highest level of inequality, La Crosse has the worst inequality in the world. Wisconsin.

According to the US Census Bureau, the Gini coefficient for La Crosse is 0.481, the highest of any city in Wisconsin. For context, the statewide Gini score is 0.445.

In La Crosse, the top 20% of households in income account for 51.9% of all income in the region, while the poorest 20% of households account for only 3.6% of income. Across the state, the disparity is slightly less pronounced, with the top 20% of households accounting for 48.3% of income compared to 3.8% for the poorest 20%.

All data in this article are five-year estimates from the U.S. Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey. For comparison purposes, all places covered by the census with a population greater than 25,000 – including cities, boroughs, municipalities and unincorporated communities – were considered as cities.