Between the early 1980s and 2001-2003, income inequality increased across the majority of states in the country. While the richest families saw their incomes decline during the stock market busts of 1997 and 2000, by 2001-2003 the growth of income of the wealthiest families had largely recovered.

At the other end of the income distribution, according to the Economic Policy Institute and the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the income of the bottom 20 percent of families grew more slowly than the growth of income of the top 20 percent of families. The report provides an important state by state perspective on the continuing trend of increasing income inquality in America.