Map Depicts Nationwide Geography of Inequality

Income and wealth inequality might not matter so much if rich and poor lived as neighbors. But for a long time in the United States they have not. "The patterns of where people live in most metropolitan areas — Washington is not unique — take the problems of inequality and make them even worse. They concentrate poverty and concentrate privilege at the same time."

City services and collective quality of life often align with the average prosperity of a neighborhood's residents. "And that means that people who can't afford an expensive home also don't get access to safe streets, cleaner air and better education."

In an analysis and a map depicting the entire country, "the Urban Institute's Rolf Pendall and Carl Hedman ranked Census tracts not just by their average household income. They constructed a single socioeconomic score that also captures the homeownership rate, the median home value and the share of people with college degrees."

While middling neighborhoods might fluctuate, the nation's richest and poorest communities have stayed quite stable: "deeply poor places tend to stay that way, but so do incredibly wealthy ones." The areas around Baltimore, Columbus, Dallas, Houston and Philadelphia exhibit especially stark geographic wealth divides.