Ratio of top 1% income to bottom 99% income, U.S. and by state and region, 2012

Rank (by top-to-bottom ratio) State/region Average income of the top 1% Average income of the bottom 99% Top-to-bottom ratio
1 Connecticut $2,683,600 $52,603 51.0
2 New York $2,130,743 $44,049 48.4
3 Nevada $1,497,185 $33,970 44.1
4 Florida $1,488,367 $34,387 43.3
5 California $1,598,161 $45,775 34.9
6 Massachusetts $1,819,077 $52,758 34.5
7 Texas $1,499,944 $46,102 32.5
8 Illinois $1,366,958 $46,080 29.7
9 New Jersey $1,546,481 $57,299 27.0
10 Washington $1,272,313 $47,517 26.8
11 Colorado $1,347,381 $50,367 26.8
12 Oklahoma $1,105,521 $41,995 26.3
13 Arkansas $895,844 $34,179 26.2
14 North Dakota $1,566,183 $59,931 26.1
15 Michigan $942,993 $37,324 25.3
16 South Dakota $1,249,327 $50,089 24.9
17 Pennsylvania $1,069,318 $43,847 24.4
18 Utah $1,117,330 $46,612 24.0
19 Louisiana $974,376 $40,792 23.9
20 Tennessee $925,479 $38,942 23.8
21 Montana $920,802 $38,931 23.7
22 Missouri $936,785 $39,778 23.6
23 Minnesota $1,185,238 $50,476 23.5
24 Arizona $877,466 $37,811 23.2
25 Georgia $939,291 $41,121 22.8
26 Kansas $1,093,986 $48,312 22.6
27 New Hampshire $1,182,788 $52,994 22.3
28 Wisconsin $974,753 $44,123 22.1
29 Rhode Island $966,071 $44,563 21.7
30 Nebraska $1,106,763 $51,654 21.4
31 Idaho $855,227 $40,438 21.1
32 Ohio $852,569 $40,469 21.1
33 South Carolina $724,646 $35,167 20.6
34 Virginia $1,162,017 $56,584 20.5
35 Alabama $751,844 $36,659 20.5
36 North Carolina $828,487 $40,429 20.5
37 Oregon $810,196 $40,314 20.1
38 Maryland $1,160,114 $61,528 18.9
39 Indiana $775,603 $41,259 18.8
40 Delaware $863,734 $46,686 18.5
41 Kentucky $685,742 $37,124 18.5
42 New Mexico $676,217 $36,883 18.3
43 Mississippi $634,614 $34,947 18.2
44 Vermont $807,836 $44,656 18.1
45 Iowa $855,918 $48,739 17.6
46 Maine $688,169 $40,032 17.2
47 West Virginia $537,989 $33,109 16.2
48 Alaska $939,371 $61,333 15.3
49 Hawaii $770,679 $52,630 14.6
8* District of Columbia $1,959,334 $60,745 32.3
ŧ Wyoming $5,078,696 ŧ ŧ
United States $1,303,198 $43,713 29.8
Northeast $1,656,523 $48,199 34.4
Midwest $1,022,655 $43,618 23.4
South $1,138,251 $42,113 27.0
West $1,347,158 $44,759 30.1

* Rank of the District of Columbia if it were ranked with the 50 states
ŧ The average income of the bottom 99% could not be estimated in 2012 in Wyoming.

Note: Data are for tax units.

Source: Authors’ analysis of state-level tax data from Sommeiller (2006) extended to 2012 using state-level data from the Internal Revenue Service SOI Tax Stats (various years), and Piketty and Saez (2012)

View the underlying data on epi.org.