Full Citation
Title: Persistent Poverty in Counties and Census Tracts
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2023
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Abstract: Research has suggested that people living in higher poverty areas experience more acute systemic problems than people in lower poverty areas (e.g., limited access to medical services, healthy and affordable food, quality education, and civic engagement opportunities).2 Government agencies and researchers have previously identified counties with high rates of poverty over an extended period as targets for increased level of support. While definitions vary, counties are typically considered to be in persistent poverty if they maintained poverty rates of 20 percent or more for the past 30 years. Persistent poverty is different from and should not be confused with chronic poverty. Chronic poverty identifies individuals and families that are consistently in poverty over time, whereas persistent poverty in this report focuses on geographic locations that have had high poverty rates for an extended time. To identify counties in persistent poverty, this report incorporates poverty estimates from the 1990 and 2000 Censuses, the 2005–2009 American Community Survey (ACS), 5-year estimates, and the 2015–2019 ACS, 5-year estimates. Other governmental agencies have alternative definitions of persistent poverty for programmatic purposes. This has created a need for more consistent methods that can be universally applied, and examples of such are described in this report. This report expands upon the persistent poverty literature by examining subcounty geographies (specifically, census tracts) and comparing those results to county results. By using this smaller geography, additional populations that may benefit from targeted intervention are identifiable. In addition, census tracts are explored over a longer time than what has been typically done in other persistent poverty analyses, allowing for comparison with identified persistent poverty counties.
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Benson, Craig; Bishaw, Alemayehu; Glassman, Brian
Publisher: U.S. Census Bureau
Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Population Data Science, Poverty and Welfare
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