Poverty highest in rural America, rising in recession, By Bill Bishop, December 27, 2010, Daily Yonder: “Nearly one in six people living in rural America fell below the poverty line in 2009, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. And poverty rates in rural counties continue to be higher than in rural and urban communities. In 2009, the poverty rate in rural America was 17.26%, according to the Yonder’s analysis of Census Bureau data. The rate in exurban counties was 13.3%; and in urban counties, the rate was 13.9%. The national poverty rate in 2009 was 14.4%. Rural, urban and exurban poverty rates were higher in 2009 than before the recession began in late 2007. The 2009 rates for urban, rural and exurban counties were all about one percentage point higher than the rates in 2006. There were 8.3 million people living below the poverty line in rural counties in 2009, half a million more than in 2006. Nationally 42.4 million people fell below the poverty line in 2009, 4 million more than before the recession began…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty