The U.S.'s widest income divides stretch from California's major metropolitan areas to smaller communities in the Midwest and Southwest, with upper-income households collecting roughly nine to 10 times the median income of lower-income households in the five leading locations.
A Pew Research Center analysis of 204 U.S. metropolitan areas reveals that the largest proportional gap was outside the country's biggest coastal cities. The findings also show why a region's high incomes alone do not determine its position in an inequality ranking.
