LOOKING AT POVERTY WITH ACS SUMMARY DATA
[ACS 2007]
June 2009
Which places lead the nation in household poverty?
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Place
Camden city, New Jersey
Bloomington city, Indiana
Brownsville city, Texas
College Station city, Texas
Edinburg city, Texas
Gainesville city, Florida
Muncie city, Indiana
Kalamazoo city, Michigan
Macon city, Georgia
Hartford city, Connecticut
Total for all places
Poverty rate(Household)
38.19%
36.54%
34.22%
32.52%
31.80%
31.60%
31.48%
31.43%
31.13%
30.42%
14.86%
What is the explanation?
The places highlighted in gray are mostly university towns, with the exception of Macon,
Georgia, which has a nearby military base and some colleges. College students may or
may not report all sources of income, which can reduce household income. For instance,
if parents pay the rent for an apartment or give an allowance, this makes the student’s
$8,000 work-study income go a lot further. In addition, these places do not have a typical
distribution of household types. They have far more non-family households, e.g., people
living alone or as room-mates/cohabiters, which on average is a household type with less
favorable poverty outcomes. For example, across the US, 41 percent of households are
non-family In Bloomington, Gainesville, and Kalamazoo, the percentages of non-family
households are around 60 percent.
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Place
Camden city, New Jersey
Bloomington city, Indiana
Brownsville city, Texas
College Station city, Texas
Edinburg city, Texas
Gainesville city, Florida
Muncie city, Indiana
Kalamazoo city, Michigan
Macon city, Georgia
Hartford city, Connecticut
Total for all places
Selected Household Types
Married
FemaleNon-Family
Couple
Headed
HHLD
40.13
26.64
22.45
11.65
60.19
25.55
20.66
16.19
56.40
6.81
50.17
36.08
21.37
22.56
52.26
13.77
63.46
18.13
15.11
48.44
30.47
11.90
58.82
25.20
24.68
43.08
28.68
29.48
42.89
21.23
15.04
38.46
41.28
If we rank cities by the proportion of female-headed households, the order looks more
typical of urban poverty hot spots, although there are a few exceptions
Place
Camden city, New Jersey
Detroit city, Michigan
Hartford city, Connecticut
Gary city, Indiana
Trenton city, New Jersey
Miami Gardens city, Florida
Newark city, New Jersey
Paterson city, New Jersey
Jackson city, Mississippi
Compton city, California
Poverty rate:
Household
38.19%
29.42%
30.42%
28.88%
23.27%
15.33%
22.74%
26.11%
23.82%
22.17%
% Female
Headed
40.13%
30.13%
29.48%
29.09%
28.84%
28.56%
28.13%
27.98%
27.54%
27.33%
Poverty rate:
Female Headed
51.25%
41.24%
43.89%
40.41%
33.18%
13.07%
32.40%
29.55%
39.46%
31.15%
Married couple families have the lowest poverty rate – nation-wide and across places.
The rate for all places in the US is 5.85 percent. However, being married is not an
antidote to poverty. There are a fair number of cities with high rates of poverty among
married couples. These are mostly in the Rio Grande valley. Note, that these places even
have high percentages of married couple families – all but two above the national
percentage.
Place
Brownsville city, Texas
Florence-Graham CDP, California
Edinburg city, Texas
Laredo city, Texas
McAllen city, Texas
Inglewood city, California
Merced city, California
Paterson city, New Jersey
East Las Angeles, California
El Monte city, California
All places, United States
Poverty rate:
Household
34.22%
29.90%
31.80%
24.68%
24.56%
19.18%
26.23%
26.11%
23.66%
16.82%
14.86%
% Married
Couple
56.40%
52.51%
52.26%
55.18%
50.39%
35.24%
42.48%
33.26%
49.60%
56.88%
41.28%
Poverty rate:
Married couple
26.50%
18.85%
17.60%
17.56%
16.76%
16.31%
15.78%
15.55%
15.46%
15.46%
5.85%