Ratio of top 1% income to bottom 99% income, U.S. and by state and region, 2015

State rank (from highest to lowest ratio) State/region Average income of the top 1% Average income of the bottom 99% Top-to-bottom ratio
— United States $1,316,985 $50,107 26.3
1 New York $2,202,480 $49,617 44.4
2 Florida $1,543,124 $39,094 39.5
3 Connecticut $2,522,806 $67,742 37.2
4 Nevada $1,354,780 $41,470 32.7
5 Wyoming $1,900,659 $60,922 31.2
6 Massachusetts $1,904,805 $61,694 30.9
7 California $1,693,094 $55,152 30.7
8 Illinois $1,412,024 $52,216 27.0
9 New Jersey $1,581,829 $65,068 24.3
10 Washington $1,383,223 $57,100 24.2
11 Texas $1,343,897 $55,614 24.2
12 Georgia $995,576 $44,147 22.6
13 Arkansas $864,772 $38,472 22.5
14 Pennsylvania $1,100,962 $50,830 21.7
15 Michigan $917,701 $42,825 21.4
16 Tennessee $947,021 $44,219 21.4
17 Missouri $944,804 $44,650 21.2
18 Arizona $882,657 $42,000 21.0
19 Minnesota $1,185,581 $56,728 20.9
20 Colorado $1,261,053 $61,165 20.6
21 North Carolina $902,972 $43,850 20.6
22 South Dakota $1,130,048 $56,610 20.0
23 Oregon $908,898 $46,090 19.7
24 Utah $1,057,066 $53,614 19.7
25 South Carolina $761,185 $38,646 19.7
26 Alabama $743,644 $38,587 19.3
27 Montana $855,976 $45,197 18.9
28 Wisconsin $964,358 $50,953 18.9
29 Ohio $858,965 $46,157 18.6
30 Kentucky $719,012 $38,990 18.4
31 Kansas $1,034,676 $56,628 18.3
32 Rhode Island $928,204 $50,963 18.2
33 Louisiana $814,386 $45,060 18.1
34 New Hampshire $1,134,101 $62,796 18.1
35 Maryland $1,135,718 $63,656 17.8
36 Oklahoma $932,520 $52,533 17.8
37 Virginia $1,109,984 $62,844 17.7
38 Idaho $829,268 $47,727 17.4
39 Indiana $804,275 $46,501 17.3
40 Delaware $869,461 $51,049 17.0
41 Mississippi $580,461 $35,353 16.4
42 Nebraska $945,869 $58,013 16.3
43 Vermont $816,579 $50,283 16.2
44 North Dakota $1,080,845 $68,316 15.8
45 New Mexico $615,082 $39,675 15.5
46 Maine $655,870 $42,575 15.4
47 West Virginia $535,648 $34,987 15.3
48 Iowa $788,419 $53,753 14.7
49 Hawaii $797,001 $57,987 13.7
50 Alaska $910,059 $71,876 12.7
8* District of Columbia $1,858,878 $61,102 30.4
— Northeast $1,777,756 $54,662 32.5
— Midwest $1,038,485 $49,287 21.1
— South $1,152,116 $46,895 24.6
— West $1,444,246 $52,652 27.4

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

Notes: Incomes are in 2015 dollars. Data are for tax units.

Source: Authors’ analysis of state-level tax data from Sommeiller 2006 extended to 2015 using state-level data from the Internal Revenue Service SOI Tax Stats (various years) and Piketty and Saez 2016

View the underlying data on epi.org.