Another Brief Look at the Poorest Americans

So much relies on the 2010 Census and related American Community Survey. Congressional district maps will be reset in some cases. The uses of about $400 billion per year in government aid to projects like hospitals and schools are made. The Census even has been used to determine how population can affect wildlife. And the data is a foundation for ongoing debates about where the rich and poor are located and whether this should change federal government policy about how aid to the disadvantaged should be spent.

Now that the final Census information about where the poor live has been released, it is worth a new look at the map of the United States and where the pockets of the financially disadvantaged are.

No one should be surprised much that 10 of the 100 poorest counties in the U.S., based on per capita income, are in South Dakota. Unemployment in the state is extremely low, barely 4%, and so is the cost of living. Low per capita income does not necessarily mean that many of the residents of the state live in poverty.

Really large pockets of low per capita income can be found along the Texas border with Mexico, in Mississippi, and particularly in the far eastern part of Kentucky. Southern-most Texas is the home of many immigrants, a large number of whom are poorly paid. Some rural sections of Mississippi are economically at a disadvantage because of a lack of business and industry that might create jobs offering reasonable wages.

There is only one great center of low per capita income in the East, and it is located among 16 counties in Kentucky that are almost completely rural and mining centers. The number is particularly large when the total population of Kentucky is taken into account. The state ranks 26th among all 50 at 4.7 million. Texas, which has 17 low per capita counties ranks second among the states in population with 27.7 million people.

As far as anyone can tell, there are no massive federal or state programs to help the residents of what is known as the Cumberland Plateau of Kentucky, where per capital income is barely above $10,000 in most counties. This is another example of the fact that demographics — poverty, joblessness and income — are not national problems. They are almost exclusively local. But that local nature hides them from national attention in most cases.

The Census will be used to decide the fate of some congressional representatives who will face new geographic districts. It is less certain what the data will do for areas like eastern Kentucky.

Douglas A. McIntyre