Philadelphia 2024: The State of the City

Posted by Pew Charitable Trusts on November 26, 2024

In many ways, 2024 is a year of significant transition for Philadelphia. The city has a new mayor in Cherelle Parker, plenty of fresh perspectives in City Council, and leadership changes at some of the largest and most influential institutions, including the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University. The trends that have given the city a sense of dynamism in recent years—including its increasingly well-educated and diverse population— show no signs of weakening. But Philadelphia’s persistent problems remain as well, threatening to undermine any sense of progress. Those problems include the high crime rate, the staggering number of drug overdose deaths, and the fact that over 1 in 5 residents are still living below the poverty line.

At least by historical standards, Philadelphia’s economy entered the year in relatively good condition. In 2023, the city’s unemployment rate was 4.2% on average, the lowest in more than 30 years, while the number of jobs in the city—an average of 765,400—was the highest in 40 years. Those factors have contributed to rising incomes for city residents: The median household income in 2022, the latest year for which data was available, was $56,517; since 2019, the figure has risen by a healthy 19%, although it remains well below the national average. Yet substantial disparities remain among the city’s racial and ethnic groups, with White, non-Hispanic households earning nearly $40,000 more per year, on average, than Black or Hispanic households.

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