The top 1 percent of earners captured nearly 40 percent  of income growth in Iowa during the recovery from the last recession, a new report shows.

The Economic Analysis Research Network report illustrates how growing income inequality of recent decades intensified as the nation rebounded from what became known as the Great Recession.

“The findings are troublesome for Iowans, where the gap between the very rich and most others has grown,” Peter Fisher, research director of the Iowa Policy Project, said in a release.

Iowa’s top 1 percent saw a 39.3 percent increase in average real income growth from 2009 to 2012.  For everyone else — the 99 percent — incomes grew 2.8 percent from 2009 to 2012.

Fourteen states showed as great an increase at the top.

Fisher said the findings matter because state lawmakers need to understand the impact of policy on services and taxes in the state.

On a bright note, most states have greater income disparity than what is found in Iowa.

The report also found that in 17 states, but not in Iowa, the top 1 percent captured all income growth between 2009 and 2012; Iowa was among 22 states in which the top 1 percent captured more than half of income growth, 65 percent in Iowa’s case; and that from 1979 to 2007, incomes of Iowa’s bottom 99 percent grew by 23.7 percent, while the top 1 percent saw their incomes increase 110.5 percent.

Click here for a fact sheet about Iowa. Read the full report here.