Income inequality at a glance

The Economic Policy Institute recently released a study that measures income inequality in the US and in each state. Specifically, it measures the difference between the income of the wealthiest 1 percent versus the bottom 99.

 If you have a minute, check out this chart about US numbers (spoiler: the wealthiest 1 percent makes 26.3 times more than the bottom 90 percent).

In West Virginia, the top 1 percent brings home 15.3 times more than the rest. Our lower numbers reflect a shortage of wealthy people here. Or, if you want to look at the bright side, we rank 47th among states, i.e. we're one of the more equal.

The only states with lower numbers are Iowa (48), Hawaii (49), and Alaska (50). For what it's worth, New York state has the highest level of inequality using this measure. You can check out the full report here and look up other states here.

Wherever you look, though, the gap is too big.