US Urban and Suburban Poverty Rates

Posted on January 21, 2010 by townsend

• Poverty growing faster in suburbs, By Frank D. Roylance and Larry Carson, January 21, 2010, Baltimore Sun: “The majority of the poor in the Baltimore region now live in the city’s suburbs for the first time, while the poverty rate in the city has declined, a new study has found. The changing geography of poverty here reflects a national trend, and argues for a more regional strategy on issues ranging from social safety nets to mass transit, the study concludes. ‘The notion of poverty as primarily an urban problem is officially outdated,’ said Elizabeth Kneebone, co-author of a report released Wednesday by the Brookings Institution in Washington. ‘This signals a remarkable shift in the geography of American poverty that will ultimately affect the way we think about and approach poverty alleviation strategies.’ Between 2000 and 2008, the number of people living below the federal poverty line in Baltimore’s suburbs grew by nearly 21,000, while the city saw a decline of more than 24,000 poor. The decline in the city’s poverty rate was the third-largest among the 95 cities examined…”
• New report finds suburban poverty rates soaring in downturn, By Tim Logan, January 20, 2010, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Poverty is moving to the suburbs. And in the recession, it is moving even faster. Those findings are the highlights of a new study out today from the Brookings Institution, which found that the number of people living below the poverty line in American suburbs grew 25 percent in the past eight years, far faster than in central cities that have long housed more than their share of the poor. And it is especially true in St. Louis…”
• Study: More poor living in U.S. suburbs than in cities, By Brandt Williams, January 20, 2010, Minnesota Public Radio: “According to a new study released Wednesday by the Brookings Institution, there are more poor people living in U.S. suburbs than there are in central cities. Researchers say between 2000 and 2008 the number of poor people living in suburban areas grew nearly five times faster than the amount of poor people in the central cities. Brookings researchers say there are now 1.5 million more poor people living in the suburbs than there are in central cities. However, proportionally speaking, poverty is still more prevalent in urban cores…”