[hollerith]

>The most equal US state (Utah) is still more unequal than the EU country which has the highest income inequality ( Bulgaria).

That can be true while at the same time the 3rd percentile of income earners in the US earn more after taxes than the 3rd percentile in Europe, ditto for the 4th percentile and so on up to the 99th percentile (since the average income in the US is significantly higher).

[Wytwwww]

It can but I don't think it is. I can't find direct stats (I mean I can find nominal but not equivalized/ social transfer adjusted figures) to compare but e.g. 1st quantile income cut-off in Sweden is 64% of the median while for first decile it's 49%

Utah on the other hand (surprisingly or not) has the highest first quintile mean (yeah.. slightly apples and oranges but gives an advantage to Utah) in the US, yet it's still only around 25% of the state median.

So if compare Utah to the national average and use: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_c... to compare it with Sweden

it's 62.30 * 1.28 (Utah vs US median in 2022) * 0.25 = $19.936

Sweden:

43.9 * 0.49 = $21.51, so a 1st decile Swede has higher PPP + social transfers adjusted income that the first quintile mean in Utah.

If course it's rather convoluted since I'm too lazy to find directly comparable data. Disregards (uses US PPP + social transfers instead of just Utah's etc.).

However I think it's broadly accurate(ish), considering that Utah has higher than average median income and the highest first quintile income all other states would do even worse.

Of course Eastern European states are poorer but Sweden is closer to the EU average than Utah is to the US average (and Sweden's GINI is around average in Europe while Utah's is the lowest in the US).