Americans Dealing With New Kind Of Poverty
How will Biden and the Democrats fix this major issue?
Newly released U.S. Census data this month reveals that over 10 percent of counties in the United States are grappling with ongoing poverty, commonly referred to as “persistent poverty.”
According to The Hill, a recent census report determined that 10.9 percent of the total 3,142 counties in the country, amounting to 341 counties, have been confronted with consistently high poverty rates for an extended duration.
The term “persistent poverty” is employed to describe areas that have endured a lengthy period of high poverty rates. It is distinct from “chronic poverty,” which pertains to individuals facing consistent poverty. To be classified as experiencing persistent poverty, an area must have maintained a poverty rate of 20 percent or higher over three decades, specifically from 1989 to 2015-2019.
A Census release has disclosed that over 80 percent of the counties identified as having persistent poverty were concentrated in the Southern region of the United States. These counties were found to be clustered in informal subregions including the Southwest border, the Mississippi Delta, the Southeast, Appalachia, as well as in certain counties with significant American Indian and Alaska Native tribal lands.
The report highlights that nearly 20 percent of all counties in the American South are affected by persistent poverty. Despite the South accounting for 38 percent of the national population, individuals from this region constitute 54.9 percent of the population living in conditions of persistent poverty, as indicated in the findings.
Out of the analyzed states, ten of them were observed to have 10 percent or more of their population residing in counties with persistent poverty. Among these, six states stood out with 15 percent or more of their population living in such counties. These states include Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, West Virginia, New Mexico, and New York.
