1. Wisconsin
- Percentage of black residents: 6.2%
- Black homeownership rate: 28.1% (7th lowest)
- Black incarceration rate: 4,042 per 100,000 people (3rd highest)
- Black unemployment rate: 15.0% (tied-11th highest)
- Unemployment rate, all people: 6.7% (21st lowest)
Based on MSN’s index, Wisconsin is the worst state for black Americans. Most black households made roughly half the white median household income, a wider income gap than in the majority of states. Wisconsin’s black residents were also less likely than white residents to have health insurance with a gap of more than 30 percentage points. There were 980 deaths per 100,000 black people – one of the highest rates in the nation. This figure represents 288 more deaths than the comparable rate for white residents, nearly the largest gap reviewed. Black Wisconsin residents are also almost 10 times more likely than whites to go to prison, nearly the largest gap. Black children in Wisconsin had worse educational outcomes than their white classmates and their black peers in other states. Milwaukee topped the nation’s most racially-segregated U.S. cities, which is also where the vast majority of the state’s black population lives.