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High poverty frequently occurs in an ethnic or subregional
context, but the factors affecting poverty differ within
these contexts. The diversity within these high-poverty
areas means that there is no single recipe for prosperity.
Strategies to improve the economic well-being of rural
residents in such areas will differ based on individual
and community needs.
Defining High-Poverty Counties
USDA's Economic Research Service has developed
a typology of high-poverty counties that reflects
racial/ethnic and regional differences in the character
of these counties. High-poverty counties are defined
here as nonmetro counties with a poverty rate of
20 percent or more based on 1999 income reported
in the 2000 Census. This definition is consistent
with the Census Bureau practice of identifying poverty
areas. Of the 444 nonmetro counties (based on the
1993 Office of Management and Budget definition)
classified as high-poverty counties in 2000, three-fourths
reflect the low income of racial and ethnic minorities.
Black (210 counties), Hispanic (74 counties), or
Native American (40 counties) high-poverty areas
are identified by one of two conditions: (1) over
half of the poor population in the county is from
one of these minority group or (2) over half of
the poor population is non-Hispanic White, but the
high-poverty rate of a minority group pushes the
county's poverty rate over 20 percent. For
example, Alabama's Crenshaw County has a poverty
population that is 55 percent non-Hispanic White
and 44 percent Black. The poverty rate for Whites
is 17 percent, but the 39-percent poverty rate of
Blacks pushes the overall county poverty rate above
20 percent. The Southern Highlands (91 counties)
high-poverty areas are located in this part of the
country and the poor are predominantly non-Hispanic.
The remaining 27 high-poverty counties fall outside
of the definition of racial/ethnic minority and
Southern Highland county types.
The typology of high-poverty counties used here
is based on county-level data. Once the high-poverty
counties are identified, comparisons among high-poverty
types are made for persons or households within
the county by poverty level, education, employment,
family structure, disability, and language proficiency
to assess key differences.
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Black High-Poverty Counties
Of the high-poverty counties, 210 were characterized by the low income
of their Black residents. These counties, with nearly 5 million residents,
lie in the old plantation belt of the southern Coastal Plain, especially
from southern North Carolina through Louisiana. Thirty-nine percent of
Blacks in these counties had poverty-level income, a proportion well above
that of Blacks in nonmetro counties without high poverty (28 percent)
or in metro areas (24 percent).
 Among
conditions relevant to poverty, Black high-poverty counties stand out
most prominently in the fact that a third of all poor children under 18
in these areas were in female-headed households with no husband present.
This proportion is much higher than that found in other types of high-poverty
areas, and is double that in nonmetro counties without high poverty. In
general, poverty in female-headed households with children, but no husband
present, is much higher than in other household types. In nonmetro America
as a whole, such households had a poverty incidence of 42 percent, compared
with 10 percent for all other households with minor children. It is difficult
for female-headed families to attain adequate income, unless they receive
child support, given the lower average wages of women and the lack of
other wage earners in such a family. Black high-poverty counties also
have higher proportions of households without a motor vehicle (12.5 percent)
than other high-poverty county types and nonmetro counties without high
poverty (6.9 percent). Limited access to
a motor vehicle can inhibit access to employment and essential services
in rural and small-town communities that have little or no public transportation.
Hispanic High-Poverty Counties
High poverty among Hispanics accounted for the overall high poverty in
74 counties. These counties are concentrated in the traditional Hispanic
homeland of the Southwest, especially Texas and New Mexico, but some are
now in Florida, Georgia, Missouri, and Washington, as Hispanics have grown
rapidly from immigration and dispersed outside of traditional settlement
areas. Within the 74 counties, Hispanic poverty rates averaged 32 percent
in 2000, a substantial decline from the 41-percent level in 1990. This
drop was achieved despite the fact that Hispanics rose as a share of the
entire population in the 74 counties (from 53 percent to 59 percent),
and the proportion of higher-income non-Hispanic Whites in these counties
dropped, with absolute declines in many counties.
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Despite the rising dominance of Hispanics within high-poverty areas where
the poor are mostly Hispanic, a declining share of all nonmetro Hispanics
now live in high-poverty areas. Hispanic growth in nonmetro areas outside
of these high-poverty areas was so rapid in the 1990s that the share of
all nonmetro Hispanics living in Hispanic high-poverty counties fell from
34 percent to 26 percent. In contrast, nonmetro Blacks and Native Americans
showed only modest shifts away from high-poverty areas to lower-poverty
counties elsewhere.
 Hispanic
high-poverty counties differ most widely from other high-poverty counties
in the share of people who report that they do not speak English "very
well" (22 percent). Native American high-poverty counties had the
next highest proportion with 11 percent of residents reporting difficulty
with the English language. Lack of English proficiency is an obvious hindrance
to obtaining higher-skilled work. It is especially prevalent in areas
with large recent influxes of immigrants, such as along the Mexican border,
where it exceeds 40 percent in some nonmetro counties.
Hispanic poverty counties have a large share of adults (37 percent)
who did not complete high school, a condition partly created by the high
amount of recent immigration and the limited schooling that many Hispanic
immigrants attained in their home countries. This level is considerably
higher than the 21 percent for Hispanics in nonmetro counties without
high poverty. Hispanic high-poverty counties have more than double the
ratio of high school dropouts to four-year college graduates than nonmetro
areas without high poverty.
Native American High-Poverty Counties
The high poverty rate in 40 nonmetro counties resulted from low income
among Native Americans, including Alaskan Natives. These counties are
all located in areas of either historic tribal presence or 19th-century
Indian reservation resettlement, especially in the Northern Plains, the
Southwest, Oklahoma, and Alaska. The poverty rate of Native Americans
in these counties was 41 percent, a level greater than that of the dominant
minority in other types of high-poverty counties. The Native American
counties did not simply have a greater incidence of poverty, they also
had the highest proportion in deep poverty. A full fifth of the total
population in these areas lived in households with incomes below 75 percent
of the poverty line.
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Native
American high-poverty counties have both the lowest share of people employed
and the lowest share of men employed in full-time, year-round work compared
with other high-poverty counties. Only 36 percent of males age 16 and
over had  full-time, year-round work in high-poverty Native American counties,
versus 47.5 percent in counties without high poverty. In addition, Native
American counties had the highest dependency rate (as measured by the
ratio of total population to employed people) of all county groups, with
288 persons of all ages for every 100 with jobs. In contrast, nonmetro
counties without high poverty had a ratio of 214 workers per 100 persons.
Native Americans in high-poverty counties are much more likely to be
children (along with the parent or parents with whom they live) than older
people, compared with high-poverty minorities in other areas. Native American
high-poverty counties have 5.9 poor children under age 18 for each poor
person age 65 and over. This compares with ratios of 4.2 for every poor
older person in Hispanic high-poverty counties, and just 2.6 in nonmetro
counties without high poverty. Thus alleviation of poverty needs to focus
more on children and their parents in Native American high-poverty areas
than it does in other areas.
In many Native American high-poverty counties, especially in the Northern
Plains, the White proportion of the population has dwindled as the number
of White farmers and ranchers interspersed among the Indian lands has
declined. The non-Hispanic White share of the population in these areas
fell from 44.5 percent in 1990 to 40 percent in 2000. Thus it is impressive
that despite the serious conditions outlined above, the overall reduction
in poverty in the Native American areas during the 1990s, from 34 percent
to 28 percent, was achieved despite a diminished presence of the racial
group with the highest income.
High Poverty in the Southern
Highlands
In the high-poverty counties not classified as Black, Hispanic, or Native
American, the majority (91) are in the Southern Highlands. Most are in
the Allegheny and Cumberland Plateau country of Kentucky and West Virginia,
but others are in the Ozark Plateau and Ouachita Mountains, west of the
Mississippi River. Racial and ethnic minorities in these counties are
few, and the vast majority of the poor are non-Hispanic Whites.
Poverty in the Southern Highlands is chronic. Historically, the region's
topography offered limited potential for commercial farming, few urban
centers emerged, education lagged, and much of the area was subject to
periods of boom and bust in the logging and mining industries. The modern
era has brought improvements, with poverty much reduced since 1960. But
the high-poverty counties share several conditions that contribute to
individual income remaining below the poverty level for more than a fifth
of the population. 
One feature that stands out in the Southern Highlands high-poverty counties
is that 31 percent of people age 21-64 report
having a disability. This is a higher incidence than found in any of the
other high-poverty county groups or in counties without high poverty.
Some disabilities of residents in the Highlands stem from mining-related
injuries or diseases, but many of the counties with high rates are not
mining areas. Not all of the disabilities are work limiting, but their
unusual prevalence restricts the potential for education and employment
opportunities alone to reduce Southern Highlands poverty.
Despite strides in educational attainment, the high-poverty Southern
Highlands counties retain a ratio of high school dropouts to 4-year college
graduates that is two-and-a-half times that in nonmetro counties without
high poverty. The Highlands ratio of 3.5 to 1 is higher than that in any
of the minority high-poverty counties. Many young people in the Southern
Highlands who have attained advanced education have moved elsewhere for
economic opportunity.
Other High-Poverty Counties
Only 27 high-poverty counties fall outside of the classification of Black,
Hispanic, Native American, or Southern Highlands. Fifteen are thinly settled
farming areas in the northern Great Plains, where income levels can vary
widely from year-to-year, depending on wheat and cattle prices and output.
Two others are the only high-poverty counties where Asians are over half
of the poor.
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All types of high-poverty counties have multiple characteristics on which
they differ from counties with less poverty. Virtually all (94 percent)
of these counties reflect historic geographical concentrations of minority
and Southern Highlands populations. Widespread poverty limits the tax
base, and where chronic, may impose a poverty of services. But each type
of high-poverty county has its own signature characteristics that are
poverty related. It is essential to recognize these typically deep-rooted
distinctions and their significance if low-income problems are to be addressed
successfully in Federal and other programs. High poverty is high poverty,
but the context in which it exists varies.
See the related Amber Waves article, Anatomy
of Nonmetro High-Poverty Areas: Common in Plight, Distinctive
in Nature
Download all classified high-poverty counties (in Excel).
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