DuBois
Race, Stratification & Economic Disparities — six measurable dimensions of racial economic stratification in the United States, reconstructed from authoritative public sources for researchers, journalists, and policy analysts.
The hierarchy of disparity
Black–White economic gaps are not uniform: measured as disparity ratios they range from about 1.6× to 5.5× — a roughly three-and-a-half-fold spread depending on which dimension you measure. Wealth and imprisonment show the starkest ratios: Black Americans are imprisoned at 5.5× the White rate (2010–2020 average) and hold just 18 % of White median household wealth (2022) — a 5.5× wealth ratio in the other direction. Income and homeownership gaps, though severe, are narrower at roughly 1.6×. This chart ranks the six dimensions by their Black-to-White disparity ratio, where 1.0 would mean perfect parity. Each dimension is measured over its own window and by its own agency — the ratios are comparable in direction and magnitude, not in vintage.
The north-star question
If a single number anchors this project it is the Black–White median wealth gap. Measured by the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances across twelve triennial waves (1989–2022), it fell to 8.2 % in the aftermath of the Great Recession (2013 survey) — the lowest reading since 1989 — before rebounding to 18.2 % by 2022, the highest on record and still less than one fifth of White median wealth. The series minimum, 6.0 % in 1989, rests on a small subsample we flag as suspect; see the wealth-gap page for that caveat.