Report: Miami number two nationally in largest gap between rich and poor

A new report shows that the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach metro area has the second highest income inequality in the country; the region is second only to New York City.

The new report from the U.S. Census Bureau, which was released on Wednesday, analyzed which cities had the biggest gaps between the rich and the poor.

Florida as a whole ranks “as the fifth-worst state in the nation on a measure of income inequality,” the Gini Index, according to the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy. U.S. income inequality has also been rising.

Mother Jones reported earlier this month that “equality” in income remains one of the most important “economic drivers.”. The report* Jones* cited explained that “making an economy’s income distribution 10 percent more equitable prolongs its typical growth spell by 50 percent.”

Poverty and unemployment have been persistent problems in Florida, including in the Miami-Dade and Broward area. Many of Florida’s largest cities are struggling to rebound from the recession. Miami, in particular, was among the 20 weakest-performing cities in the country in the struggle to recover from the recession.

As Occupy Miami supporters protest in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, income inequality remains one of the movement’s most talked about issues.