Geographic Inequality Is Swallowing the Recovery

There is much talk about national income inequality, but America continues to suffer from deepening geographic inequality as well. Just 20 large urban counties nationwide—less than one percent of the nation’s 3,000-plus counties—accounted for half of new business establishments, according to a report released today by the Economic Innovation Group. The report uses Census data to examine the number of business establishments and jobs created over the first five years of the most recent recoveries: 1992 to 1996, 2002 to 2006, and 2010 to 2014.

Los Angeles County comes in first place, with around 14,500 new establishments, followed by Miami-Dade County (about 6,800), Kings County, New York, or Brooklyn (6,500), Harris County in Houston (6,000), and Orange County, outside L.A. (4,400). Queens, Dallas County, Cooks County in Chicago, San Francisco County, Santa Clara County, San Diego County, and Manhattan (New York County) also number among the top 20, as the table below shows. These counties make up less than one percent of America’s counties and are home to just 17 percent of the nation’s population.