Economist: Internal affairs: Regional inequality
The gap between many rich and poor regions widened because of the recession.
THE differences between countries are often not as great as the disparities within them: each nation is divided by a common economy. An analysis by The Economist suggests that the gap between poorer and richer regions increased during the downturn in some developed economies. And the income gap between richer and poorer areas is likely to widen further as government-spending cuts disproportionately hurt less prosperous parts.
Regional data come with various health warnings attached. Comparing regions in different countries is tricky, because their size varies hugely. We mainly use the OECD definition of "small areas" (Britain is broken into more than 100 regions), except for America where data are available only on a state-by-state basis. Crude income numbers also ignore the fact that the cost of living is cheaper in rural parts than in big cities, which has the effect of exaggerating inequality. Urban areas are always likely to be wealthier than rural ones because of their higher productivity and their greater ability to attract companies and employees. ...
Lots of caveats to go with these stats. I'm not sure counting D.C. as a state is helpful. Considering only twenty years of unification, I thought the relative equality in Germany was interesting.
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