24/7 Wall St. has released a list of the poorest counties in each state of the US, gleaning data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
Data from the following resources were evaluated to come up with the results:
- Five-year estimated median annual household incomes from 2009 through 2013 from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS)
- Five-year estimated educational attainment rates also came from the Census Bureau
- Annual unemployment rates for 2013 from the Bureau of Labor Statistic
- Figures on the percentage of populations that are classified as urban or rural from the Census Bureau’s 2010 decennial census
A special report announcing the list, points out that in each state, there was at least one county with a median annual household income more than $7,000 lower than the state’s median income. Virginia and Maryland had counties with median incomes over $35,000 lower than that of the state.
The figures also point out that McCreary County in Kentucky is most impoverished county with a household income of just $20,972 which is $22,064 below the state’s average of $43,036 – and less than the national average of $53,891, notes the Daily Mail. Rural populations are in the worst state of things in most of the suffering counties. However, in the Bronx and New York the poorest are still the urban population (household income: $34,388).
Read more here.
(Image credit: Cumberland Falls, McCreary County by Frank Kehren)
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