2011 American Community Survey

Posted on September 20, 2012 by townsend

• Low-income Southland households had biggest recession losses, By Rebecca Trounson and Sandra Poindexter, September 19, 2012, Los Angeles Times: “People of all income levels across Southern California suffered losses during and after the Great Recession, but the lowest fifth of households took the biggest hit, new census data show. Los Angeles County households whose earnings put them in the lowest fifth for income in 2011 earned 12% less, on average, than the incomes of that same group in 2007, when the recession began. The declines for low-income households in other Southern California counties were even larger, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis of newly released census data. From 2007 to 2011, average earnings for the lowest fifth of households dropped 18% in Orange County, for example, and 27% in Riverside County. All incomes were adjusted for inflation. The 2011 estimates released Thursday showed that the declines were most severe in the early years of the recession…”
  
• Income data shows widening gap between New York City’s richest and poorest, By Sam Roberts, September 20, 2012, New York Times: “The rich got richer and the poor got poorer in New York City last year as the poverty rate reached its highest point in more than a decade, and the income gap in Manhattan, already wider than almost anywhere else in the country, rivaled disparities in sub-Saharan Africa. While the national recession officially ended in 2009 and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has repeatedly proclaimed the city’s robust recovery, the census figures released on Thursday painted a decidedly sober view of how New Yorkers are faring…”
• Poverty rises in Phila., suburbs, census study finds, By Alfred Lubrano, September 20, 2012, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Poverty rose significantly in Philadelphia and its surrounding counties over the last two years, while the city’s median household income in 2011 ranked second-worst among the nation’s 25 largest cities. The findings were released Thursday in the American Community Survey One-Year Estimate, an annual sampling of three million people conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. The report has a higher margin of error than the census, which is a separate undertaking…”