Table 4

Ratio of top 1% income to bottom 99% income, U.S. and by state and region, 2011

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 $2,178,817 $53,694 40.6
2 New York $1,749,590 $43,202 40.5
3 Florida $1,141,314 $35,393 32.2
4 Massachusetts $1,535,356 $50,843 30.2
5 Nevada $1,091,021 $36,975 29.5
6 Wyoming $1,473,766 $53,403 27.6
7 California $1,223,617 $45,589 26.8
8 Texas $1,185,033 $45,130 26.3
9 Illinois $1,083,216 $44,210 24.5
10 New Jersey $1,312,077 $54,864 23.9
11 Colorado $1,098,682 $47,837 23.0
12 Arkansas $698,681 $32,932 21.2
13 Washington $972,325 $46,541 20.9
14 Oklahoma $883,082 $42,334 20.9
15 Pennsylvania $882,574 $43,399 20.3
16 Rhode Island $851,183 $41,958 20.3
17 Arizona $713,324 $35,393 20.2
18 New Hampshire $1,010,409 $50,311 20.1
19 North Dakota $1,064,581 $53,372 19.9
20 Tennessee $734,288 $37,016 19.8
21 Georgia $770,823 $39,094 19.7
22 Michigan $707,446 $35,988 19.7
23 Missouri $760,105 $38,779 19.6
24 Minnesota $947,312 $48,682 19.5
25 Alabama $665,177 $34,874 19.1
26 Kansas $883,359 $46,416 19.0
27 South Dakota $935,048 $49,711 18.8
28 Wisconsin $783,236 $42,465 18.4
29 Ohio $699,693 $38,583 18.1
30 Virginia $981,383 $54,667 18.0
31 North Carolina $702,503 $39,145 17.9
32 Montana $672,899 $37,740 17.8
33 Utah $762,317 $42,976 17.7
34 West Virginia $560,682 $31,626 17.7
35 Oregon $663,156 $37,774 17.6
36 Louisiana $705,301 $41,112 17.2
37 South Carolina $590,036 $34,402 17.2
38 Maryland $1,007,595 $59,011 17.1
39 Vermont $705,381 $41,737 16.9
40 Indiana $650,347 $38,941 16.7
41 Kentucky $578,193 $34,716 16.7
42 Idaho $641,757 $39,288 16.3
43 Delaware $732,052 $45,059 16.2
44 New Mexico $557,849 $35,649 15.6
45 Nebraska $803,826 $51,745 15.5
46 Mississippi $503,135 $33,112 15.2
47 Maine $573,933 $38,486 14.9
48 Iowa $659,386 $48,249 13.7
49 Alaska $790,816 $58,482 13.5
50 Hawaii $635,052 $52,294 12.1
11* District of Columbia $1,467,468 $63,282 23.2
United States $1,040,506 $42,694 24.4
Northeast $1,425,607 $46,501 30.7
Midwest $823,063 $41,799 19.7
South $921,361 $41,075 22.4
West $1,047,813 $43,787 23.9

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

Note: Data are for tax units.

Source: Authors' analysis of state-level tax data from Sommeiller (2006) extended to 2011 using state-level data from the Internal Revenue Service SOI Tax Stats (various years), and Piketty and Saez (2012)

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