Census: Changes in Areas With Concentrated Poverty

Posted by U.S. Census Bureau on July 21, 2014

INTRODUCTION

This report largely compares Census 2000 poverty estimates with those based on the 2008–2012 5-year American Community Survey (ACS). As 2010 represents the midpoint of this period, for convenience the remainder of this report refers to these 2008–2012 ACS poverty statistics as 2010 estimates.

In 2010, approximately 14.9 percent of the total U.S. population lived in poverty. However, poverty is not distributed evenly across neighborhoods. There are neighborhoods in every state that have higher than average poverty rates. The U.S. Census Bureau designates any census tract with a poverty rate of 20.0 percent or more as a “poverty area.” In 2010, more than
77 million people lived in poverty areas.

http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2014/acs/acs-27.pdf