Where can I find: What are the 10 poorest counties in the US?

[bluestateguy]

I already found the 10 richest counties in the US, and 6/10n of them voted for Kerry.

Any help would be appreciated.

[AndyP]

1. I don't know

but when you find them could you post them? Thanks.

[rzemanfl]

2. Don't know, but I bet they're in the South. n/t

[tx_dem41]

23. Actually, if you look at the data that was presented in this thread...

you were quite wrong.

[rzemanfl]

29. Looks like about half wrong. Surprised about the places in

South Dakota and Nebraska hadn't thought about reservations. Must not be enough gamblers to make a go of casinos. I consider Texas to be in the South, do you?

[tx_dem41]

31. Having lived in Texas for 23 years (and Louisiana before that)...

I say no (but I get arguments on that). Also, realize that the Texas counties are all along the border with Mexico, which, for better or worse, are definitely not the South.

[Clark2008]

34. I agree with you.

As a Tennessean, I see Texas as the epitome of the Southwest - not the traditional South of Alabama and Georgia, for example.

Remember the Alamo! ;)

[rzemanfl]

38. Texas was part of the Confederacy. Tennessee too. That

them part of the South in my book.

[Sporadicus]

3. A Quick Google Search Reveals...

that six of the ten poorest counties are in Nebraska. Another article alludes to the rest of them lying on the US - Mexico border. Haven't found anything definitive yet.

On edit: some data from 2000...

http://www.family-to-family.com/goals.htm

The nation's ten poorest counties are:
Starr County, Texas
Zieback, South Dakota
Zavala County, Texas
East Carroll Parish, Louisiana
Todd County, South Dakota
Shannon, South Dakota
Owsley County, Kentucky
Brooks County, Texas
Willacy County, Texas
Buffalo County, South Dakota

Each in a red state!

[pop goes the weasel]

10. The Texas counties

are Democratic strongholds.

[ultraist]

15. And poor people don't vote! And when they do, they vote Democrat!

What that data tell us is that we did a suck ass job getting our people registered and to the polls.

Historically, the LARGE majority of people in poverty vote Democrat. Right on par, Kerry won the majority of the poor, lower, and middle class income earners. Also keep in mind that there are a disproportionate number of minorities in poverty. Over 90% of blacks are Democrats.

It also indicates that these Repuke controlled states have very harsh policies against the poor and few social programs. We already knew that Repukes do not support social policies for the poor and the high poverty rates in their red states confirm that.

[diamond14]

33. Shannon County SD is home to the Oglala-Lakota Indians.....

that was the land left over for the American Indians AFTER randolf hearst stole the Black Hills of South Dakota from them, for the GOLD...leaving the American Indians with nothing but brackish, wind-blown prairies while herst lived a life of decandent luxury...

[hiley]

4. don't know

but I would quess some would be right here in Arkansas and the Appalachine Mountains. Sorry, can't spell. Rory Kennedy did a firefox movie about the mountain community.

[lindsayg]

5. maybe this will help

http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Products/Ranking/index.htm

[ultraist]

13. More poverty stats

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/saipe/tables.html
Data are available for the following years
State & county data: 1989, 1993, 1995 - 2002
School district data: 1995, 1997, 1999 - 2002


http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/saipe/national.cgi?year=2002
Small Area Income & Poverty Estimates
Annual Estimates for States, Counties & School Districts

[yankeedem]

6. From bea.gov

28063 Jefferson MS 11,643
46137 Ziebach SD 11,585
48323 Maverick TX 11,512
28055 Issaquena MS 11,373
48507 Zavala TX 10,875
31075 Grant NE 9,669
31009 Blaine NE 9,640
48427 Starr TX 9,560
31005 Arthur NE 8,939
31115 Loup NE 7,459

http://www.bea.doc.gov/bea/regional/reis/drill.cfm?table=CA05&lc=30&years=2000&format=htm&areatype=LOCAL&sort=1

The poorest county in a "blue" state
55078 Menominee WI 15,966

And I had to scroll a LONG way for that one.

[hfojvt]

11. follow-up data

population of Grant Co, Ne = 769
Loup, Ne = 683
Blaine, Ne = 675
Arthur, Ne = 462
Jefferson, Ms = 8653
You cannot tell me that there are not more poor people in places like "blue" NYC or LA or Twintown or Shytown.
They are kinda skewed data points because they are too small to be representative. Bill Gates could buy half of Ziebach Co, SD and establish residence there to avoid state income taxes and it would be the richest county.
Actually, he could not because, as I suspected Ziebach Co is in the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation and so is probably a very "blue" county, population about 2,000.

[mediaman007]

14. The county is just northwest of Green Bay and

is 87 % Native American. "Now watch this drive!"

[EVDebs]

7. Look along the US border or in some Red State like NE or KS...

[queeg]

8. they"re the redest ones

[ultraist]

16. Poverty Rates per State, NH has the lowest

Poverty rates by State: In order of lowest to highest
http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/saipe/national.cgi?year=2002#SA11

New Hampshire 6.9%
Minnesota
Connecticut
Maryland
New Jersey
Wisconsin
Massachusetts
Iowa
Alaska
Delaware
Vermont
Colorado
Indiana
Virginia
Utah
Kansas
Nebraska
Pennsylvania
Nevada
Ohio
Washington
Wyoming
Michigan
Hawaii 11.6
Maine 11.7
Rhode Island 11.7
North Dakota 11.8
Illinois 12.0
Missouri 12.0
Oregon 12.0
Idaho 12.4
National Average United States 12.3
South Dakota 13.2
Florida 13.4
North Carolina 13.6
Georgia 13.9
California 13.9
Arizona 14.4
Tennessee 14.4
New York 14.4
Montana 14.9
South Carolina 14.7
Oklahoma 15.3
Kentucky 15.5
Alabama 16.1
Texas 16.1
West Virginia 17.0
Arkansas 17.2
District of Columbia 18.4
New Mexico 18.6
Louisiana 19.0
Mississippi 19.7

New Hampshire and MN have EXCELLENT social programs and very high taxes.

Two of the biggest BLUE states have higher than average poverty rates: NY and CA

[Clark2008]

36. Tennessee and New York State have the same # of poor!

:wow:

That's a shocker - seriously it is.

[hfojvt]

9. City and county data book

but they do not show them in order. They might in the more recent edition.
From the 1972 book I find that the five richest States were Alaska, CT, HI, NJ, and MD. And the five poorest - Ky, WV, Al, Ark, and Ms.
As far as counties, the richest county by median income was Hinsdale, Co but only 33 families lived there. The poorest was Angoon division in Alaska, but only 72 families lived there.

[ultraist]

12. Different measures mean different things

What county has the MOST poor people or the highest percentage of poor people? Comparing real numbers to percentages says a lot too as the examples in hfojvt's post shows. 33 families in one county? I'd throw that one out and consider it irrelevant.

The US Census bureau has all of this data online as someone noted and linked above.

[LostinVA]

17. THE Poorest county in the US is Shannon Co., SD

Where Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is (Lakota Indians). Go visit there and drive around for a few hours. It's like a frigging Third World country in the good US of A. The poverty will literally make you cry, and they have NO WAY out of it. Of course, the US Gov't and mining companies are making billions off of their land. It's horrifying.

I sponsor a little boy out there. I have little extra money, but at least send him school supplies and some warm clothes. He has 15 people living in a two room SHACK. No beds, no power, no running water. Only one has a job, because there ARE no jobs. In the United States. Yet, we throw billion of dollars away on war and other countries, and outsource jobs. Sometimes I fucking HATE this place....

Google Pine Ridge.

[Auntie Bush]

25. Also high on spousal abuse and alcohol. A sad situation!

[SharonAnn]

37. And Bureau of Indian Affairs Mismanages the money they are

to receive from those who "lease" their land for mining, oil drilling, etc.

It's been a scandal for decades if not longer.

But, hey, it's easy to steal from them because they can't fight back.

[lastknowngood]

18. us census burrow has all of the info you will need

and it is on line

[mordarlar]

19. Cuyahoga Co. is supposed to be up there on that list if i am not mistaken.

[IronLionZion]

20. Cleveland?

Cleveland doesn't seem that poor

[mordarlar]

22. Last year Cleveland was named as the poorest ...

It was either city, co. something. I cannot remember now. Cleveland is in pretty bad shape.

I found a link.

http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/43026.html

[Nikia]

21. I thought in Ohio that some rural counties were poorest

Urban counties do have a lot of poor people, but they also have a fair amount of people making 6 figure incomes. In several rual counties, there are almost literally no jobs. The richest people by far are doctors. Everyone else is lucky to make $8/hour.

[mordarlar]

24. link...

http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/43026.html

[Nikia]

26. For large cities

The poorest counties in Ohio and the country are rural though. They usually have less of a problem with crowded housing than big cities since there are a lot of big run down structures that people live in. Rural areas do have problems with high unemployment, low income, and low education levels. Large poor cities usually have large income distribution, many rich and many poor. Many rural counties have very few rich or even upper middle class and a large number of poor people.

[Disturbed]

27. Interesting that Texas comes up 4x.

The Sliverspoon Sociopath has said that he doesn't understand how poor people think and that the poor are lazy and unambitious which is why they are poor.

[gorbal]

28. That can give a misleading impression

The poorest states and counties may have gone for Bush, but if you look at the breakdown of actual voters, those making less than the poverty level went for Kerry. The info used to be up at CNN, I don't know if it is still there.

The problem is that we need to give people a reason to vote, not that we need to act like republicans so we are more acceptable. If people don't see any reason their lives will get better with either candidate as president, they won't bother standing in line to vote.

I just wish people had known more about Kerry.

[ermoore]

35. Good Grief

"I just wish people had known more about Kerry."

C'mon, Kerry had plenty of time to let everybody get to know him. We probably would have done better if people knew less about him.

[quaoar]

30. Here's a list by per capita income

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poorest_places_in_the_United_States

100 Poorest Counties by Per Capita Income
Number of counties by state in the 100 poorest counties: Texas, 17; Kentucky, 16; Mississippi, 14; South Dakota, 10; Louisiana, 5; Alabama, 4; Georgia, 4; Montana, 4; New Mexico, 4; North Dakota, 3; Arizona, 2; Idaho, 2; Nebraska, 2; Tennessee, 2; West Virginia, 2; Alaska, 1; Arkansas, 1; Colorado, 1; Florida, 1; Missouri, 1; Oklahoma, 1; South Carolina, 1; Utah, 1; Wisconsin, 1. Twenty-six states do not have any counties in the 100 poorest counties.

United States of America: $21,587

1 Buffalo County, South Dakota $5,213
2 Shannon County, South Dakota $6,286
3 Starr County, Texas $7,069
4 Ziebach County, South Dakota $7,463
5 Todd County, South Dakota $7,714
6 Sioux County, North Dakota $7,731
7 Corson County, South Dakota $8,615
8 Wade Hampton, Alaska $8,717
9 Maverick County, Texas $8,758
10 Apache County, Arizona $8,986

[tx_dem41]

32. Thanks for that. It appears the North and South are evenly split...

..among the poorest 100.

[0007]

39. San Luis county Colorado at one time was the poorest

[theboss]

40. Basically look at Indian Reservations or along the Mexican Border

There you will find your poverty. A more intersting study may be the counties with the highest unemployment rates. I know that there are some counties in Southern West Viriginia with rates in the 20s.