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DEMOGRAPHICS

Florida's income gap among highest in U.S.Florida ranks among the top five states for the biggest income gaps between the rich, middle-class and poor, according to a new study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The income gap between Florida's richest residents and its poor and middle class was among the worst in the country during the early 2000s, according to this national study.

Florida for the first time in 20 years has ranked in the top-five worst states for income inequality, according to the study, which compared census data between the 1980s and early 2000s.

Between 2001 and 2003, Florida's richest 5 percent earned on average 13 times more than the poorest 20 percent, the fifth-biggest of such gaps in the country. The rich in Florida made almost three times as much as the middle 20 percent, the third-largest gap in the country, preceded only by Texas and Kentucky.