Census Data: Atlanta Has Highest Income Inequality In The Country

Recent census data highlight how Black Atlanta residents are being left out of the economic boom the city has seen in the past several years.

According to recent data from the United States Census Bureau, Atlanta has the highest income inequality rates within large U.S. cities, Governing.com reported. As the city continues to flourish financially, Black Atlantans are being left out in large numbers that reflect the racial disparities that have plagued the city for generations.

General inflation has only continued the racial income disparities, with rising food and gas prices having higher impacts on low-income households.

“When a very large percentage is vulnerable to that kind of economic pressure it says that we have a lot of work to do,” Kyle Waide, president and CEO of The Atlanta Community Food Bank, said.

The Food Bank has been seeing an increased demand for its services amid ongoing inflation numbers. Economists and organizations reviewed the numbers spanning a five-year period from 2016 to 2020.

The Census Bureau found the median household income for a white family in Atlanta to be around $83,722 compared to $28,105 for a Black family, Atlanta Wealth Building reported. The liquid assets poor for Black families is at 69% compared to 22% of white families.

As for Black businesses in Atlanta, the average Black-owned business is valued at $58,085 while the average value of a white business is listed at $658,264.

The ranking was based on the Gini coefficient, a measure of how equally income is distributed among a population expressed in a decimal format ranging from zero to one. A score of zero represents complete income equality within a community, where every person has equal income.

The higher the decimal score, the greater the income inequality. Atlanta reflected the largest gap between low and high-income households among cities with more than 100,000 residents with a Gini coefficient score of 0.5786, Census data shows.

New Orleans came in second with a coefficient of 0.5655; New York City came in seventh with a coefficient of 0.5470, and Tampa came in eighth with a score of 0.5426.