The city of Berkeley has the 10th-highest income inequality in the United States and the highest income inequality in California, according to data released by Bloomberg News on April 15.
Bloomberg found the results by calculating the Gini coefficient — generated from the United States Census’ household income share by quintiles — to measure the wealth distribution. The lower the coefficient value, the lower the inequality.
With a median household income at $65,887, Berkeley is ranked No. 10 out of 50 U.S. cities Bloomberg profiled on its website. The news outlet accumulated this data by studying 300 cities in the United States that had a population of at least 100,000. The list was then funneled down to 50 cities with the worst income inequalities.
Berkeley’s Gini coefficient is 0.5438, compared to the national average, which is 0.4757. Berkeley’s value has increased by 4.58 percent since 2008, showing roughly the same shift as Atlanta — the city with the highest income inequality.
The cities in California with the next-highest income inequality are Los Angeles and Oakland. They are tied as the 28th-worst cities, with their median household incomes at $46,803 and $48,196, respectively. San Francisco is ranked as No. 30, with its median household income at $73,012.
