New Jersey is becoming a more unequal place to live.

Over the past five years, the gap between the rich and the poor has widened, according to new U.S. Census data. The state now ranks in the top ten in the nation for income inequality.

Edmond Berisha, an assistant professor of economics at Montclair State University, said this was because middle class families weren’t making enough to keep up with inflation, while the richest 10 percent were actually bringing in more money than a decade ago.

About half of all income in the state was going to that richest 10 percent, he said, and an improving stock market only widened that divide.

“All benefits have gone to the upper end,” Berisha said.

Other states are facing similar situations. In the map below, a darker color means more wealth is concentrated with fewer numbers of people.

The State of the Union

These comparisons are based on a measurement known as the Gini index, which calculates inequality on a scale of "0″ to “1.”

A "0″ would mean everybody had the same amount of wealth, and Alaska came closest to that mark. (Its score was almost .42, meaning that even the most “equal” state in no way came close to having equal shares.)

Conversely, a "1″ would mean all income belonged to one person, or one small group of people. Some of New Jersey’s neighbors came closer to that end of the spectrum, with New York nabbing the top spot overall.

These numbers encompass the Census’ most recent five-year estimate, spanning 2013 through 2017. When you compare this period to the preceding five years, New Jersey’s income inequality grew at a faster rate than all but a few other states.

The East Coast

If you cut the data another way, you can see how inequality generally ticked upward throughout the East Coast, especially in the decade since the Great Recession.

The selected states below have some of the largest concentrations of wealth in the country. Click on a dot to see what state it represents (New Jersey is in red):

Find Your Town

While Essex ranks as the most unequal county in New Jersey, there are high concentrations of wealth across the state.

In the map below, the darker areas are the more economically segregated. Click on an area to see whether it has become more or less equal over the past decade.

A few dozen towns were excluded because of a high margin of error.

In the long run, Berisha said that extreme inequality risked slowing down the economy, which could hurt everybody. The gap between the poor and the rich was also wide in 2007, he said.

But it wasn’t as wide as it is now.

Blake Nelson can be reached at bnelson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BCunninghamN.