Counties with Greatest Income Inequality are Also the Poorest

In recent decades, income inequality has increased, both in Minnesota and nationally. New information from the American Community Survey (ACS) shows that U.S. and Minnesota counties with the highest degree of income inequality also have the highest poverty rates and...

Income Inequality, Tax Regressivity are Worse Than We Thought

There has long been convincing evidence—both at the state and national levels—that income inequality has accelerated in recent decades, with an increasing share of wealth concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. Extreme income inequality—coupled with stagnant or...

Income Inequality Continues to Escalate

Last summer, two separate North Star articles (published on July 18 and August 29) explored the growth in U.S. and Minnesota income inequality since the 1970s and 1980s. While recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau showed significant income growth in 2015, income...

Post-Great Recession, Rich Get Richer and Poor Get Poorer

We’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that average U.S. and Minnesota incomes increased from 2014 to 2015. Further good news for Minnesotans is that income growth among each of the Gopher State’s six income groups outperformed the...

Income Growth by Income Group: Minnesota vs. U.S.

Minnesota fared better than the national average in terms of income growth since the Great Recession, based on Census Bureau data summarized in a September 21 North Star article. A deeper dive into another batch of recently released data from the American Community...