Concentrated rural poverty and the geography of exclusion

One-half of rural poor are segregated in high-poverty areas, a new policy brief co-published by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire and Rural Realities. This brief highlights the challenges faced by America\u27s rural poor, particularly as they are physically and socially isolated from middle-class communities that might offer economic opportunities

The Changing Spatial Concentration of America’s Rural Poor Population

This paper documents changing patterns of concentrated poverty in nonmetro areas. Data from the 1970 through 2000 U.S. Census Summary Files reveal the changing shares of poor people and children living in rural counties with disproportionately poor populations. Nonmetro poverty rates – both overall and for children – declined more rapidly than metro rates in the 1990s. The 1990s also brought large reductions in the number of high-poverty nonmetro counties, and declines in the share of rural people, including rural poor people, who were living in them. In particular, the number and percentage of rural people living in extremely poor counties (i.e., over 40 percent) declined dramatically. This suggests a “drying up” of America’s rural pockets of poverty and indicates a decline in spatial inequality in nonmetro America, at least at the county level. On a less optimistic note, concentrated poverty among rural minorities remains exceptionally high (e.g., almost one-half of rural blacks live in poor counties). Moreover, the recent transformation of concentrated rural poverty may be short-lived. Rural children – especially rural minority children -- have poverty rates well above national and nonmetro rates, the concentration of rural minority children is often extreme (i.e., over 90 percent lived in high-poverty counties), and the number of nonmetro counties with high levels of persistent child poverty remains high. Rural children may be more disadvantaged than ever, if measured by their lack of exposure to middle-class role models, and their economic divergence with the rest of the nation’s children

The Changing Faces of America’s Children and Youth

Recent U.S. Census Bureau projections indicate that by the middle of this century, non-Hispanic whites will cease to be a majority of the American population. In this article we document how for America’s youngest residents, the future is already here. America’s rapidly changing racial and ethnic composition has important implications for intergroup relations, ethnic identities, and electoral politics

The changing faces of America\u27s children and youth

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates indicate that between July 2008 and July 2009, 48.6 percent of the 4 million children born in the United States were minorities. In contrast, nearly 60 percent of the children born ten years ago were non-Hispanic white. This rapid change demonstrates that America\u27s youth are at the forefront of the country\u27s rapidly shifting demographic makeup. This brief reveals the factors causing this increase in the proportion of minority births

Population growth in new Hispanic destinations

Natural increase—more births than deaths—is now the major engine of Hispanic population growth in many large metro areas and their suburbs, as well as numerous smaller metropolitan areas and rural communities. Hispanics now account for half of U.S. population growth, and Hispanic population growth is the reason many communities grew instead of declined

The Changing Spatial Concentration of America\u27s Rural Poor Population

This paper documents changing patterns of concentrated poverty in nonmetro areas. Data from the Decennial U.S. Census Summary Files show that poverty rates—both overall and for children—declined more rapidly in nonmetro than metro counties in the 1990s. The 1990s also brought large reductions in the number of high-poverty nonmetro counties and declines in the share of rural people, including rural poor people, who were living in them. This suggests that America\u27s rural pockets of poverty may be “drying up” and that spatial inequality in nonmetro America declined over the 1990s, at least at the county level. On a less optimistic note, concentrated poverty among rural minorities remains exceptionally high. Roughly one-half of all rural blacks and one-third of rural Hispanics live in poor counties. Poor minorities are even more highly concentrated in poor areas. Rural children—especially rural minority children—have poverty rates well above national and nonmetro rates, the concentration of rural minority children is often extreme (i.e., over 80% lived in high-poverty counties), and the number of nonmetro counties with high levels of persistent child poverty remains high (over 600 counties). Rural poor children may be more disadvantaged than ever, especially if measured by their lack of access to opportunities and divergence with children living elsewhere. Patterns of poverty among rural children—who often grow up to be poor adults— suggest that recent declines in concentrated rural poverty may be short-lived

The changing faces of America's children and youth

Recent U.S. Census Bureau projections indicate that by the middle of this century, non-Hispanic whites will cease to be a majority of the American population. In this article we document how for America's youngest residents, the future is already here. America's rapidly changing racial and ethnic composition has important implications for intergroup relations, ethnic identities, and electoral politics.Population ; Youth

Behind at the Starting Line: Poverty Among Hispanic Infants

In this brief, authors Daniel Lichter, Scott Sanders, and Kenneth Johnson examine the economic circumstances of Hispanic infants using the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey annual microdata files from 2006 through 2010. They report that a disproportionate share of Hispanic infants start life’s race behind the starting line, poor and disadvantaged—an important finding because the proportion of all U.S. births that are Hispanic is growing rapidly. The poverty risk is especially high among rural Hispanic infants and those in new destinations. Despite higher poverty risks, Hispanic infants receive less governmental assistance. High Hispanic infant poverty has immediate and long-term consequences for infants and the nation. Failing to invest in families and children now has long-term consequences because early childhood poverty tends to set into motion a series of lifecycle disadvantages (such as insufficient parenting, bad neighborhoods, underfunded schools, and poor health care) that greatly increases the likelihood of poverty in adulthood. The authors conclude that whether today’s Hispanic children will assimilate into America’s economic mainstream is an open question, but the Hispanic infants who will help reshape America’s future require public policy attention now

BEYOND GATEWAY CITIES: ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING AND POVERTY AMONG MEXICAN IMMIGRANT FAMILIES AND CHILDREN

Our main objective is to better understand how new residential patterns have reshaped patterns of poverty among America's growing Mexican-origin population. We use data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Samples (IPUMS) to document recent changes in poverty rates among native-born and foreign-born Mexicans living in the Southwest and in new regions where many Mexican families have resettled. Our analysis focuses on how changing patterns of employment (e.g., in construction and food processing industries) have altered the risk of poverty among Mexican families and children. We demonstrate that the Mexican population dispersed widely throughout the United States during the 1990s. Perhaps surprisingly, Mexican workers, especially new immigrants, had much lower rates of poverty in the new destination regions and rural areas than their counterparts that remained in traditional areas of population concentration - the Southwest. As we show in this study, the dispersion of America's Mexican native-born and immigrant populations raises questions and hopes about their economic and political incorporation into American society.Food Security and Poverty,

The Increasing Diversity of America\u27s Youth

This brief documents how unfolding demographic forces have placed today’s children and youth at the forefront of America’s new racial and ethnic diversity. Authors Kenneth M. Johnson, Andrew Schaefer, Daniel T. Lichter, and Luke T. Rogers discuss how the rapidly changing racial and ethnic composition of the youth population has important implications for intergroup relations, ethnic identities, and electoral politics. They report that diversity is increasing among America’s youth because there are more minority children and fewer non-Hispanic white children. Minority births exceeded non-Hispanic white births for the first time in U.S. history in 2011 according to Census Bureau estimates. Both the declining number of non-Hispanic white women of prime child-bearing and growing numbers of minority women contributed to this change as did differential fertility rates. The largest gains in child diversity between 2000 and 2012 were in suburban and smaller metropolitan areas. Yet, child diversity is geographically uneven, with minimal diversity in some areas of the country and significant diversity in other areas. They conclude that natural population increase—particularly fertility rates—will continue to reshape the racial and ethnic mix of the country, and this change will be reflected first among the nation’s youngest residents