Thursday, September 19, 2013

Poverty rate in rural areas rose while declining slightly in metropolitan areas last year

UPDATE, Sept. 20: In rural areas, 26.2 percent of children live in poverty, according to the Carsey Institute. The national child poverty rate was 22.6 percent in 2012, with 16.4 million children living in poverty. The biggest increase was in New Hampshire, where the rate rose from 12 percent to 15.6 percent, and in Mississippi, where the rate rose from 31.8 percent to 34.7 percent. To read the full report click here.

The poverty rate outside metropolitan areas rose last year while the metro rate declined slightly. It was 17.7 percent in 2012, up from 17 percent in 2011, the Housing Assistance Council reports in the Daily Yonder. The overall poverty rate was statistically unchanged at 15 percent. (Council chart)
"Overall, 8.5 million people outside metropolitan areas had incomes below the poverty line in 2012, a statistically significant increase of more than 400,000 persons from the 2011 level," the article says. (Read more) For the council's full report, click here.

The 2010 census recognized 429 counties as being persistently poor -- counties with poverty rates of 20 percent or more in 1990, 2000, and 2010. Most of those counties are rural, and 86 percent are entirely rural. For a list of persistently poor counties click here.

The council says Mississippi had the highest rural and small-town poverty rate in 2010, at 24.6 percent. Second was Louisiana, at 21.3 percent, followed by Kentucky, 21.1 percent; South Carolina and New Mexico, 20.9 percent; Georgia, 20.8 percent; Arkansas, 19.6 percent; Alabama, 19.5 percent; North Carolina, 19.1 percent; and West Virginia, 19 percent. Texas had the largest number of rural or small town residents living in poverty, at 728,128. North Carolina had 538,247, Georgia 468,900, California 465,930, Kentucky 438,129, Mississippi 435,220, Ohio 375,127, Tennessee 356,661, Missouri 325,513 and Alabama, 306,684. (Read more

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