Top 10 US States with Widest Rich-Poor Divide [SLIDESHOW]

Most American states have to deal with extreme inequalities, in terms of the rich-poor divide. In fact, the states have higher such inequalities than most developed nations, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) - an organisation that works towards promoting policies to improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.

These statistics suggest that in comparison to developed countries, the US has the fourth worst levels of inequality - basically, they have far more poor people than the rich. Based on the analysis of OECD data from all 50 US states, financial news provider 24/7 Wall St. released a list of the 10 states with the widest gap between the rich and poor. The journal reported that the rich-poor divide has widened in the country since 1967, when economists first began ranking income inequality by Gini coefficient measures.

The measure ranks inequality with scores between one and zero. While zero denotes income equality meaning all having equal money, a score of one reflects extreme inequality in an economy where only one person has all of the money.

"Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, have among the lowest median incomes in the country and also have the worst income inequality scores. States with the highest incomes, including Connecticut, Massachusetts and California, are also on the list. All ten states have - relative to the size of their middle class - a large percentage of their population living at one end of the income spectrum, and in some cases large percentages at both ends," the journal said in a statement.

However, except New York and California, none of the ten states examined for extreme income inequality are wealthy states having relatively larger proportions of both extremely wealthy households and extremely poor households.

Check out the slideshow to know about the ten US states with widest gap between the rich and the poor, determined on the basis of Gini coefficient scores, the distribution of household income, the median income and the percentage of households below the poverty line...