WASHINGTON (Map, News) - The income gap between the wealthiest and poorest families in D.C., Virginia and Maryland drastically widened during the last quarter-century, echoing growing financial disparities nationwide, according to a new analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The households in the top 5 percent in the District have annual incomes that are more than 26 times that of the bottom 20 percent, the study showed. D.C. was not ranked against states in the report, but if it were, it would top the list of states with the largest income gap, followed by New York.

Maryland had some of the most sizable gains in the country in its income gap.

According to the center, Maryland families at the top 5 percent of the earnings scale now make 12.3 times as much as the poorest 20 percent of families.

In the United States as a whole, the wealthiest have an average income more than seven times greater than the lowest-earning households.

“The top group has disproportionately been helped by the expansion of the economy while middle-class and working people have really just barely beaten inflation,” said Neil Bergsman, director of the Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute.

Although the just-released analysis does not break data down to a county level, Bergsman said the effects are particularly being felt in Montgomery County, where the richest and, increasingly, the poorest citizens are concentrating due to the nature of job offerings in the area.

Bergsman said the statistics point to a desperate need for the state to streamline and extend unemployment insurance as well as keep support programs in place even as officials struggle to balance the budget.

In Virginia, the income divide also is becoming more pronounced, experts told The Examiner. According to the report, the state’s gap is the 11th-largest in the nation.

This shift is being caused by the accumulation of wealth in places such as Loudoun and Fairfax counties, which last year had the first- and second-highest median incomes nationally.

Elizabeth McNichol, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said families at the top of the earnings picture are excelling financially because of growth in the stock market. Meanwhile a surge in generally lower-paying, service-sector jobs are accounting for the swing on the other end.

“It’s disturbing because we’re on the brink of a recession, and those families will be poorly prepared to weather that storm,” she said.

dlevitz@dcexaminer.com