Portside

Between 2013 and 2014, the poverty rate in most states was

largely unchanged, according to yesterday's release of state

poverty statistics from the American Community Survey (ACS).

While the poverty rate fell slightly for the country as a

whole, most of the changes at the state level were too small

to signify a meaningful difference. As of 2014, only two

states-North Dakota and Colorado-have poverty rates at or

below their 2007 values, before the Great Recession.



From 2013 to 2014, the national poverty rate, as measured by

the ACS, fell from 15.8 percent to 15.5 percent. Poverty

rates declined in 34 states plus the District of Columbia,

but only five of these changes were large enough to signify

a measurable difference: Mississippi (-2.5 percentage

points), Colorado (-1.0 percentage points), Washington,

(-0.9 percentage points), Michigan (-0.8 percentage points),

and North Carolina (-0.7 percentage points). (A number of

other states had similar reductions in their poverty rates,

but the sample sizes for these states are too small to tell

whether these changes were statistically significant.)

Alaska was the only state where the poverty rate increased

significantly, rising from 9.3 percent to 11.2 percent.



The lack of improvement in state poverty rates echoes the

trends we've seen in household income. However, the data

suggest that the lack of real income growth over the past

decade and a half has been even more pronounced for

households at the bottom of the income scale. As of 2014, 38

states had lower median household income than in 2000, yet

47 states-nearly the entire country-had higher poverty rates

in 2014 than in 2000.



This is another reminder that the chief roadblock preventing

greater improvement in living standards for middle-class

Americans is also holding back progress in reducing the

ranks of the poor: stagnant wages. While states can and

should adopt targeted programs to alleviate poverty, these

programs face an uphill battle if policymakers do not

prioritize broad-based wage growth.

 

Click here, then click on any state.



Then click on any state to view the data for that state.