The New York Times has a large interactive map showing what it calls “income mobility” around the country, especially for poor families. Here’s the Upper Midwest:
The lesson here is that Minnesota is better off than many places around the country. From the accompanying article:
Based on the earnings records of millions of families that moved with children, it finds that poor children who grow up in some cities and towns have sharply better odds of escaping poverty than similar poor children elsewhere.
[…]
The places where poor children face the worst odds include some — but not all — of the nation’s largest urban areas, like Atlanta; Chicago; Los Angeles; Milwaukee; Orlando, West Palm Beach and Tampa in Florida; Austin, Tex.; the Bronx; and the parts of Manhattan with low-income neighborhoods.
All else equal, low-income boys who grow up in such areas earn about 35 percent less on average than otherwise similar low-income children who grow up in the best areas for mobility. For girls, the gap is closer to 25 percent.
The upper midwest does pretty well in this analysis, especially Southwestern and Southern Minnesota. Of course, the same core city vs. suburbs inequality shows up here, as well.
Zooming in on the Twin Cities metro.