The fifth annual Silicon Valley Pain Index, an easily understandable, statistical overview of the structured inequalities in Silicon Valley, was recently released and features new data that highlight the region’s persistent inequalities. There are almost 200 statistics in the pain index, which can be organized around the ideas of wealth, poverty and inequality.
The U.S. is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, and Silicon Valley is one of the wealthiest areas in the country. But the question must be asked, who owns the wealth? The pain index shows 0.001% of Silicon Valley households — nine households each with more than $12 billion — hold 12 times more wealth than the bottom 50%, or 440,000 households. The total household wealth in Silicon Valley is almost $2 trillion, and if divided up equally, each resident in the valley would receive $2 million. However, the reality is one-quarter of the people in Silicon Valley have less than $5,000.
However, even though there is almost $2 trillion of wealth in Silicon Valley, 30% of all households are not self-sufficient, which means these folks cannot provide the basics without government aid or non-profit assistance. The main reason households can’t provide the basics for their families is due to the amount people earn compared to how much things cost. The pain index reports the average per capita income is $36,000 for Latino workers, $49,000 for African Americans, $82,000 for Asian Americans and $101,000 for white workers.