Financial inequality between the rich and the poor has been rising in the United States and in Utah over the past few decades. While such inequality has been connected to societal challenges, these challenges may be mitigated by economic mobility, or the ability of people to move up and down the economic ladder. Following an earlier analysis in 2010, this report examines the American Dream, with a focus on economic mobility in Utah by looking at five equally-sized income percentiles, often referred to as quintiles.
The 2010 report found that about a third of all Utahns were upwardly mobile over the study period. Utah Foundation’s new report includes an expansion of the previous report’s economic mobility analysis by looking at mobility within two periods – from 1994 through 2002 and 2003 through 2011 – and compares mobility across the periods. This comparison allows for an analysis as to whether economic mobility is increasing or decreasing for Utahns. Using a large sample of individual state income tax return data and analysis from the Utah State Tax Commission, Utah Foundation found that mobility has decreased. In other words, more people stayed within their respective income groups in the most recent nine-year period. Utah Foundation
