By Jackson Mejia and Jon Hartley (updated July 12, 2024 for inflation inequality. Wage data have not been released since May. Note that in July 2024, the BLS did not report a price index for item CUSR0000SEEA (educational supplies), which means that expenditure weights do not sum to 100. We chose to not reallocate the missing weights for this month because it is only 0.01% of expenditures.)
This page reports monthly updates for geographic inflation inequality, income inflation inequality, and a combination of the two. Raw data are at the bottom of the page. We cut off plots in 2021, but data are available back to 1978.
July 2024
Income inflation inequality is the bottom income quartile’s inflation rate minus the top quartile’s. Geographic inflation inequality is the inflation rate of the Census’s Pacific division minus the West North Central division’s inflation rate. Geographic and income inflation inequality is the bottom income quartile in the Pacific division’s inflation rate minus the top income quartile’s inflation in the West North Central.
Cumulative income inflation inequality divides the bottom income quartile’s price level by the top quartile’s. Cumulative geographic inflation inequality divides the price level of the Census’s Pacific division minus the West North Central division’s price level. Geographic and income inflation inequality is the price level in the Pacific division’s inflation divided by the top income quartile’s price level in the West North Central.
National
Inflation Inequality
Inflation by income decile since January 2021. The rest of the data are available in the link at the bottom of the page.
Real Wages by Income Decile
Real wages by income decile computed as the difference between decile-specific nominal wage growth from the Current Population Survey using the Atlanta Fed’s Wage Growth Tracker and the decile-specific inflation rate. Base period is January 2021
Regional
Inequality between Regions: Inflation
A table linking Census divisions to states is at the bottom of the page. Computed as a twelve-month inflation rate smoothed with a three-month rolling average.
Inequality between Regions: Real Wages
Real wages by Census division computed as nominal wage growth by division less the division-specific inflation rate and normalized to an index with January 2021 as the base year.
Inequality within Regions: Inflation
Inflation rate by income within Census divisions.
Inequality within Regions: Real Wages
Real wages by Census division and income quartile. Computed by subtracting income x region inflation rate from nominal wage growth.
Historical Data Archives. Note that data are experimental and should be used cautiously. Please let us know if you would like different cuts of the data or visualizations!
Table 1. Regional divisions from the U.S. Census Bureau.
