Better Cities Project
  • Home
  • About Us
    Our Vision
    BCP’s vision is that free-market municipal policy solutions are broadly available, widely acceptable, and regularly employed, enabling American cities to achieve their full potential as engines of economic prosperity. We reject the idea that cities are lost to free-market principles or policies.
    Our Mission
    BCP uncovers ideas that work, promotes realistic solutions, and forges partnerships that help people in America’s largest cities live free and happy lives.
    Learn More
    • About Better Cities Project
    • Our Focus Areas
    • Our Team
    • Collaboration and Careers -- Work With BCP
  • Research and Projects
  • Latest Insights
  • Videos
  • Contact
    Our Vision

    Address

    304 S. Jones Blvd #2826
    Las Vegas NV 89107

    Phone

    ‪(702) 546-8736‬

    Hours

    Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

    Email

    info@better-cities.org

    Email Us

    No Result
    View All Result
    Better Cities Project
    • Home
    • About Us
      Our Vision
      BCP’s vision is that free-market municipal policy solutions are broadly available, widely acceptable, and regularly employed, enabling American cities to achieve their full potential as engines of economic prosperity. We reject the idea that cities are lost to free-market principles or policies.
      Our Mission
      BCP uncovers ideas that work, promotes realistic solutions, and forges partnerships that help people in America’s largest cities live free and happy lives.
      Learn More
      • About Better Cities Project
      • Our Focus Areas
      • Our Team
      • Collaboration and Careers -- Work With BCP
    • Research and Projects
    • Latest Insights
    • Videos
    • Contact
      Our Vision

      Address

      304 S. Jones Blvd #2826
      Las Vegas NV 89107

      Phone

      ‪(702) 546-8736‬

      Hours

      Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

      Email

      info@better-cities.org

      Email Us

      No Result
      View All Result
      Better Cities Project
      No Result
      View All Result
      Home Economic Prosperity

      Income inequality is getting worse in urban areas

      America's cities are catching up with rural areas for economic disparity. What's driving the change?

      byBrian Thiede,David L. Brownand2 others
      April 15, 2020
      in Economic Prosperity
      Reading Time: 3 mins read
      A A
      Income inequality is getting worse in urban areas
      Share on FacebookShare on TwitterLinkedInEmail

      Income inequality has increased dramatically in the United States over recent decades, surpassing its previous peak in the 1920s.

      In 2016, the average income among the bottom 24.9 million households was US$21,000. Meanwhile, the top 1%, or 1.2 million households, earned an average household income of $1.8 million.

      These disparities have spurred social movements and become a central issue for some candidates in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

      RelatedInsights

      Lawsuit: Jacksonville, FL

      Will California Pass Bill Easing Zoning Laws for Church-sponsored Housing Projects?

      Book Review: “Arbitrary Lines” by Nolan Gray

      Book Review: “The Municipal Financial Crisis” by Mark Moses

      However, much of the attention has focused on inequality across the entire U.S. population, regardless of where individuals live.

      Our research and other studies show that levels of income inequality within counties and cities vary considerably across the country.

      Challenges in rural areas

      Our work focuses specifically on differences in income inequality between rural counties and their urban counterparts.

      Using U.S. Census Bureau data, we looked at the Gini coefficient, a common measure of income inequality.

      This measurement ranges from 0, where everyone earns exactly the same amount and there is complete equality, to 1, or complete inequality, where all resources are held by one individual or household. Values above 0.4 are often considered high, and values near or below 0.3 very low.

      For most of the past five decades, income inequality has been higher in rural counties than in urban areas.

      The most rural counties – those with the smallest, least dense populations – suffer the highest levels of income inequality. Meanwhile, the most urban areas tend to have the lowest levels of inequality.

      Narrowing the gap

      However, rural-urban differences at the county level have narrowed over the past decade or so.

      On average, in 1970, the Gini coefficient within rural counties was 10.2% higher than within urban counties. In 2016, it was just 0.5% higher. This convergence is happening because inequality is worsening in urban areas – not because things are getting better in rural communities.

      We found a similar pattern when comparing inequality between the most rural and most urban counties.

      In 2016, just 31 out of the 3,076 counties in the contiguous United States were considered low inequality.

      There is one exception: suburban counties. While suburban counties are getting more unequal, they are doing so at a much slower rate than the core cities in the nation’s metropolitan areas.

      What’s more, more Americans now live in highly unequal counties. In 1970, 1% of the urban population lived in counties where the Gini coeffecient was over 0.48, an especially high score. In 2016, it was 8.2%.

      Rural counties have seen a more modest increase in the proportion of their population living in highly unequal counties – from 5.7% to 7.6%.

      Strikingly, the population living in low-inequality counties has all but disappeared. While 8.3% of the rural population and 30.0% of the urban population lived in low-inequality places in 1970, by 2016 virtually no Americans – less than 1% – lived in low-inequality places, where the Gini coefficient was less than 0.36.

      In 2016, just 31 out of the 3,076 counties in the contiguous United States were considered low inequality, according to our analysis.

      What this means

      Rural poverty has received considerable attention from scholars and the media.

      But persistently high levels of inequality in rural communities also suggest the need to study the substantial number of people at the high end of the economic spectrum. Little is known about who, exactly, falls at the top of the income distribution in rural communities.

      If researchers knew more about the role of elites in the rural United States, they could develop more comprehensive explanations of why inequality and other economic development challenges persist.

      In addition, our work shows that urban inequality is an increasingly important issue. Since the average level of income inequality within rural counties has changed little over the decades, it seems that the growing inequality within urban counties has driven income disparities nationwide.

      This matters because research shows that living in high-inequality places is associated with poor health and diminished mobility up the socioeconomic ladder.

      Income inequality is clearly on the upswing in the United States, but this process is playing out unevenly across the different parts of the country.

      Tags: CensusCensus DataIncome InequalityInequalityPoverty
      Previous Post

      Cities lead the charge on coronavirus front lines

      Next Post

      Charity rises to the occasion amid the pandemic

      Brian Thiede

      Brian Thiede

      Brian Thiede is assistant professor of Rural Sociology, Sociology, and Demography at Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on the relationship between environmental change, demographic behavior, and economic development, primarily in low- and middle-income countries. He also explores poverty and inequality in the United States.

      David L. Brown

      David L. Brown

      David L. Brown is International Professor of Development Sociology, Emeritus at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He is a social demographer whose research focuses on migration and population redistribution in the US and Europe with a particular focus on how migration affects and is affected by local community organization. His work also examines population ageing, the social organization of the urban-rural interface, the production and reproduction of social and economic inequalities between regions and rural vs. urban areas, and policies to ameliorate such inequalities.

      Jaclyn Butler

      Jaclyn Butler

      Jaclyn Butler is a Ph.D. student in Rural Sociology and Demography at Pennsylvania State University,

      Leif Jensen

      Leif Jensen

      Leif Jensen is Distinguished Professor of Rural Sociology and Demography in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education, College of Agricultural Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University, where he also serves as Associate Director of the Social Science Research Institute. He has published two books and more than 80 journal articles and book chapters on a range of topics including poverty and inequality, the correlates of human mortality rates, underemployment and other forms of employment hardship, informal work and household economic strategies, the circumstances and well-being of U.S. immigrants and their children, new immigrant destinations, and international development.

      Show More Contributor

      Explore More

      • Economic Prosperity
      • Criminal Justice and Public Safety
      • Transportation and Infrastructure
      • Education
      • Energy and Environment
      • Community, Growth and Housing
      • Clean, Open and Fair Government

      Recent News

      Lawsuit: Jacksonville, FL

      Lawsuit: Jacksonville, FL

      December 22, 2022
      Will California Pass Bill Easing Zoning Laws for Church-sponsored Housing Projects?

      Will California Pass Bill Easing Zoning Laws for Church-sponsored Housing Projects?

      December 22, 2022
      Lawsuit: Humboldt County, California

      Lawsuit: Humboldt County, California

      October 6, 2022
      Book Review: “Arbitrary Lines” by Nolan Gray

      Book Review: “Arbitrary Lines” by Nolan Gray

      October 5, 2022
      Load More
      Facebook Twitter RSS
      Better Cities Project

      Better Cities Project helps people in America’s largest cities live free, happy lives. We uncover what works, promote solutions, and forge partnerships that turn ideas into results.



      © 2021 Better Cities Project

      Our Focus Areas

      • Economic Prosperity
      • Criminal Justice and Public Safety
      • Transportation and Infrastructure
      • Education
      • Energy and Environment
      • Community, Growth and Housing
      • Clean, Open and Fair Government

      The Fine Print

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms and Conditions
      • Reports and Financials

      Recent News

      Lawsuit: Jacksonville, FL

      Lawsuit: Jacksonville, FL

      December 22, 2022
      Will California Pass Bill Easing Zoning Laws for Church-sponsored Housing Projects?

      Will California Pass Bill Easing Zoning Laws for Church-sponsored Housing Projects?

      December 22, 2022
      Lawsuit: Humboldt County, California

      Lawsuit: Humboldt County, California

      October 6, 2022
      No Result
      View All Result
      • Home
      • About Us
      • The Team
      • Work With Better Cities Project
      • Research and Projects
      • Latest Insights
      • Videos

      © 2022 Better Cities Project

      Welcome Back!

      Login to your account below

      Forgotten Password?

      Retrieve your password

      Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

      Log In

      Add New Playlist

      Love Cities? So Do We.

      Get ahead of the curve -- learn about innovations, ideas and policies driving change in America's largest cities, with BCP in your inbox.



      You have Successfully Subscribed!