Table 1

Income growth from 1979 to 2007, overall and for the top 1% and bottom 99%, U.S. and by state and region

Average real income growth
Rank (by top 1% income growth) State/region Overall Top 1% Bottom 99% Share of total growth (or loss) captured by top 1%
 1 Connecticut 72.6% 414.6% 29.5% 63.9%
 2 Massachusetts 82.1% 366.0% 51.7% 43.1%
 3 New York 60.5% 355.1% 22.2% 67.6%
 4 Wyoming 31.5% 354.3% -0.8% 102.3%
 5 New Jersey 62.6% 264.7% 41.3% 40.3%
 6 Washington 31.2% 222.3% 13.9% 59.1%
 7 Florida 38.8% 218.8% 13.8% 68.9%
 8 Vermont 42.4% 217.0% 27.8% 39.5%
 9 South Dakota 44.8% 216.0% 30.5% 37.2%
10 New Hampshire 53.2% 215.9% 37.6% 35.5%
11 Utah 31.0% 214.9% 15.4% 54.1%
12 Virginia 58.2% 214.8% 44.6% 29.5%
13 Illinois 31.4% 211.6% 12.2% 64.9%
14 Maryland 51.0% 202.1% 37.0% 33.6%
15 Colorado 37.4% 200.8% 21.2% 48.3%
16 Idaho 30.1% 197.6% 16.3% 49.9%
17 California 31.5% 191.8% 13.2% 62.4%
18 Pennsylvania 40.0% 184.9% 25.2% 42.8%
19 Tennessee 35.3% 178.0% 20.2% 48.4%
20 Minnesota 44.4% 175.9% 30.9% 36.8%
21 North Carolina 44.8% 172.0% 32.1% 34.8%
22 Georgia 37.5% 170.9% 23.5% 43.3%
23 Rhode Island 53.8% 170.3% 40.4% 32.6%
24 Nevada 8.6% 164.0% -11.6% 218.5%
25 South Carolina 25.4% 163.5% 12.8% 54.0%
26 Nebraska 43.5% 160.3% 31.8% 33.5%
27 Alabama 33.7% 158.8% 20.5% 44.9%
28 Arizona 17.0% 157.8% 3.0% 84.2%
29 Wisconsin 28.5% 150.4% 17.4% 44.0%
30 Oklahoma 33.9% 149.6% 20.3% 46.6%
31 Maine 39.9% 149.4% 30.2% 30.5%
32 North Dakota 33.7% 147.8% 24.0% 34.2%
33 Montana 22.3% 146.8% 10.9% 55.2%
34 Missouri 31.9% 140.5% 20.3% 42.5%
35 Kansas 37.0% 132.3% 26.6% 35.0%
36 Oregon 13.5% 127.2% 2.7% 81.8%
37 Texas 26.6% 124.1% 13.5% 55.3%
38 Delaware 31.5% 122.6% 21.2% 39.7%
39 Arkansas 35.0% 121.6% 25.6% 34.0%
40 New Mexico 14.0% 119.3% 4.2% 72.6%
41 Alaska -10.3% 118.6% -17.5% Ŧ
42 Hawaii 12.4% 118.0% 3.9% 70.9%
43 Indiana 21.4% 115.3% 12.6% 46.5%
44 Ohio 20.4% 111.2% 11.3% 49.4%
45 Iowa 30.9% 110.5% 23.7% 29.8%
46 Kentucky 19.9% 105.1% 11.2% 48.8%
47 Michigan 8.9% 100.0% -0.2% 101.7%
48 Mississippi 31.8% 93.4% 24.8% 29.8%
49 Louisiana 35.4% 84.6% 29.5% 25.6%
50 West Virginia 12.9% 74.1% 6.6% 53.3%
 6* District of Columbia 88.1% 239.4% 65.8% 34.8%
United States 36.9% 200.5% 18.9% 53.9%
Northeast 59.0% 301.2% 31.0% 52.9%
Midwest 26.5% 147.1% 14.4% 50.7%
South 37.6% 167.5% 22.6% 46.1%
West 27.3% 186.2% 10.5% 65.2%

* Rank of the District of Columbia if it were ranked with the 50 states

Ŧ Only the incomes of the top 1% grew over this period.

Note: Data are for tax units.

Source: Authors' analysis of state-level tax data from Sommeiller (2006) extended to 2007 using state-level data from the Internal Revenue Service SOI Tax Stats (various years), and Piketty and Saez (2012)

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