Patterns of Race and Poverty in the US 1970-2010

Mapping Census data creates a spatial picture of social phenomenon, and here the focus is on spatial expression of race and poverty in the US.

According to the census data maps, we can see that race is segregated in the US. Poverty, on the other hand, touches everybody. There are pockets of counties with high rate of poverty in which the percentage of families that are under poverty line is staggering. Those pockets are constant through the years and can be spotted in each census.

Apache Arizona is a painful example; in 1970 the poverty rate was 52.66%. Through the years the rate decreases and falls to 34% (which is still staggering) in 2010. The population in the county comprises of mostly of American Indians 72.29% in 1970 rising to 77% in 1990 and in 2010 remains at 72%.

White poverty isn’t segregated as the other ethnic groups but there are constant pockets such as Knox County in Kentucky which is mostly white 98%. Poverty rate in 1980 was 37.1% in 1990 it went up to 38.89%. In 2000 when poverty around the country went down, figures in Knox are a little lower but still quite high at 34.83%.

The correlation between high black American population and poverty rates is quite obvious. The South State where there is a big concentration of Black American population is at the same time a big pocket of high poverty rates which shows in all the census we analyzed. For example: Holmes county in Mississippi has incredibly high rate of poverty and majority of Black population. In 1970 62% are below poverty line when  68% of the population is Black American. Poverty rates there went down with the years and stood on 41.1% in 2000, while the percentage of black population went up to 78.66% at that year.

Although the rate of poverty in the US fluctuates through the years, there are consistent pockets of deep poverty that, as the maps show us, correlate with race.