Data show U.S. poverty rates in 2019 higher in rural areas than in urban for racial/ethnic groups (2024)

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Data show U.S. poverty rates in 2019 higher in rural areas than in urban for racial/ethnic groups? ›

Rural Black or African American residents had the highest incidence of poverty in 2019 at 30.7 percent, compared with 20.4 percent for that demographic group in urban areas. Rural American Indians or Alaska Natives had the second highest rate at 29.6 percent, compared with 19.4 percent in urban areas.

Rates of poverty are higher in rural areas compared to urban areas. According to the United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, in 2019 15.4% of people living in rural areas had an income below the federal poverty line, while those living in urban areas had a poverty rate of only 11.9%.

About 34.0 million people, or 10.5 percent of the nation's population, lived below the official poverty level in 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. [1] (See the technical notes section for examples of poverty levels.)

The figure shows that for Blacks, the poverty rate of 18.8% in 2019 was the lowest rate observed since poverty estimates were first produced for this group for 1959. The previous low for this group was 20.8% in 2018.

The American Indian and Alaska Native population (ratio of 2.2) was the most overrepresented in poverty. Non-Hispanic White and Asian individuals were underrepresented in poverty, both with a ratio of 0.8, not statistically different from one another.

Rural poverty often stems from limited access to markets, education, quality infrastructure, employment opportunities, health, and financial products. Urban poverty is often marred by weak or hazardous living conditions related to sanitation, employment, and personal security.

While the overall rate of poverty is higher in nonmetro counties than in metro, the difference between nonmetro/metro poverty rates varies significantly across Census regions (see more on the Region Definitions discussed here below).

Official Poverty Measure

The official poverty rate in 2022 was 11.5 percent, with 37.9 million people in poverty. Neither the rate nor the number in poverty was significantly different from 2021 (Figure 1 and Table A-1). The official poverty rate for Black individuals decreased between 2021 and 2022.

Income before transfers and taxes was skewed toward the top of the income distribution in 2019. Among households in the highest quintile, average income before transfers and taxes was $332,100 that year, compared with $81,800 among households in the middle quintile and $23,800 among those in the lowest quintile.

The ACS shows that in 2022 the child (people under age 18) poverty rate was 16.3%, 3.7 percentage points higher than the overall rate. But the poverty rate among those age 65 and over was 10.9%, 1.6 percentage points lower than the overall rate.

Why was poverty rate so low in 2019? ›

The full 1.2 million increase in full-time year-round workers was attributable to women. Incomes grew across the distribution, and poverty plummeted as a result. The official poverty rate fell to an all-time record low of 10.5 percent in 2019.

Poverty and race/ethnicity

The US Census declared that in 2014, 14.8% of the general population lived in poverty: As of 2010 about half of those living in poverty are non-Hispanic white (19.6 million). Non-Hispanic white children comprised 57% of all poor rural children.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the national poverty rate was 12.4% in 2022, up from 11.2% in 2021. These states have the highest percentages of poverty in the country: Mississippi, Louisiana, West Virginia, New Mexico, Arkansas, Kentucky, Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, and New York.

Native Americans are the poorest,and not ONLY the poorest,but also the most forgotten,since many complaint only about poor Afro-Americans and maybe also Hispanics. The poorest counties are Indian reservations in Alaska,the Dakotas, Arizona and New Mexico.

The U.S. minority group with the highest rate of poverty in 2018 is African Americans. According to data, the poverty rate for African Americans was 26.5% that year. This means that approximately 1 in 4 African Americans in the U.S. were living in poverty.

Poverty is higher in rural areas

While urban poverty is a unique challenge, rates of poverty have historically been higher in rural than urban areas. In fact, levels of rural poverty were often double those in urban areas throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

This monocentric urban model argues that richer consumers buy more land and therefore choose to live where land is cheap. The model can explain why the poor live in city centers as long as the income elasticity of demand for land is greater than the income elasticity of travel costs per mile.

Poverty incidence is lower in higher-density urban areas.

However, it is important to not automatically conclude from this that cities support people to escape poverty, as it is also possible that poverty rates in urban areas are lower because of selective migration of relatively wealthy people from rural areas.

Poverty has a strong relationship to geography in the United States. Previous research has found that rural areas have higher average poverty rates than urban areas, but the new Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) has shown in recent years that urban areas have higher average poverty.