Where Pennsylvania Ranks In Racial Inequality: 24/7 Wall St.

PITTSBURGH, PA — As the country fights about Civil War monuments, large differences in income, employment and health outcomes between white and black citizens persist across the country. For example, white household income is about $71,300 a year on average in the United States, while that figure is only about $43,300 for black households.

Other measures of inequality show wide gaps. According to the Pew Research Center, white families hold far more of the country’s wealth than black families do. Median white household wealth was more than $140,000 compared to around around $11,000 for black households in 2013.

Subscribe

Even factoring in education levels, these gaps persist. Additional gaps divide black and white families on unemployment rates, poverty levels and even infant mortality.

Pennsylvania has the sixth highest level of black-white inequality in the country, according to a new report from the financial news site 24/7 Wall St.

In the Keystone State, the median black household income is around $33,487, compared with $60,327 for white households. The unemployment rate for black adults is more than double that for whites — 11.4 percent compared with 4.9 percent. Overall, about 10.5 percent of Pennsylvania's population is black.

One of the greatest racial divides nationwide is incarceration rates — black Americans are more than five times more likely than white Americans to be in prison, a phenomenon that may contribute to other measures of inequality. (For more national stories, subscribe to the Across America Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

But the United States is not a monolith, and the level of racial inequality is not uniform across the country.
To demonstrate this, 24/7 Wall St. compiled state-level data from the Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the non-profit Sentencing Project to assess the levels of racial inequality across the country. By combining the data, the report ranked each state, from lowest to highest, in terms of the level of inequality between black and white residents.

Some states on this list, such as Montana, have surprisingly low rates of inequality, but this is due in part to the state’s small black population.

Nevertheless, the report's data provides important fine-grained data for understanding the state of racial inequality across the country and could help offer insights for fighting these gaps.

These are the five states with the smallest racial gap according the report:
1. Hawaii
2. Montana
3. Idaho
4. West Virginia
5. New Hampshire

These are the five states with the highest level of inequality between white and black residents:
1. Wisconsin
2. Minnesota
3. South Dakota
4. Illinois
5. Iowa

According to a June 2016 poll from Pew, most Americans think the country should do more to fight racial inequality.

"About six-in-ten Americans (61%) say more changes are needed to achieve racial equality; 30% say the country has already made enough changes," Pew found. "About four-in-ten blacks (43%) are doubtful that the country will ever make the changes needed for blacks to have equal rights with whites. Just 11% of whites and 17% of Hispanics share this view."

Read the full report at 24/7 Wall St.>>

Story by Cody Fenwick (Patch National Staff)

Image: Pittsburgh skyline (Danita Delimont/Gallo Images/Getty Images)