Advance Access Published on 23 November 2007 Scales of regional income disparities in the USA, 1955–2003

This article examines multiple dimensions of regional per capita income disparities in the USA between 1955 and 2003 with a particular focus on scalar effects. It combines various exploratory analytical tools of spatial disparities, including inequality indices, mobility indices, kernel density estimation, spatial autocorrelation statistics and scale variances, to analyse regional average per capita income distributions at multiple spatial scales, ranging from counties to multi-state regions. The analysis reveals previously unrecognised systematic patterns of cross-scalar dynamics, whereby spatial income disparities are increasingly more pronounced at smaller scales in the last few decades