Study Finds Wisconsin, Minnesota Among Worst States For Black Americans

In an effort to see which states provided the best opportunities for Black Americans, a study focusing on four key areas was done by Zippia, a resource site for job seekers.

While there are a lot of factors that come into play to determine quality of life, the Zippia study focused specifically on these four areas:

1. Income Gap (Higher is worse)
2. Education Gap (Higher is worse)
3. Home Ownership Disparity (High is worse)
4. Black Americans Incarceration Rate Per 100,000 (Higher is worse)

Upon conclusion of their study, Wisconsin came out as the overall worst state for racial equality and Minnesota came out as the fifth worst.

Here are the results from each state:

Wisconsin

• Incarceration: 2542 per 100,000
• Home Ownership Inequality: 48%
• Income Gap: 37%
• Education Gap: 16.7%

Wisconsin is the worst state for Black Americans according to the above metrics. In the Badger State, black imprisonment is more than 10 times that of white imprisonment. Combine that with dismal home ownership rates and a staggering income gap and it’s easy to see Wisconsin has some ground to make up.

Minnesota  

• Incarceration: 1219 per 100,000
• Home Ownership Inequality: 52%
• Income Gap: 36%
• Education Gap: 15.5

While Minnesota has less severe incarcerations rates than most other states, that doesn’t mean everything is sunshine and roses in Minnesota. Black Minnesotans have a home ownership rate that is half their white counterparts. This makes sense because in addition to one of the worst home ownership disparities, Minnesota also has one of the worst wage gaps.

You can follow the link below to see how all the states in America performed in this study, as well as get a thorough explanation of the methodology used.