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Saturday, December 11, 2010

South Dakota Shows Extremes in Poverty, Income

I suppose I shouldn't get too excited about South Dakota's supposedly growing wealth. GDP growth be darned, South Dakota is still home to the most impoverished county in the United States. Take a look at the data from the U.S. Census Small Area Poverty and Income Estimates for 2009, and you'll learn that Ziebach County on the Cheyenne River Reservation has a 62.0% poverty rate. Buffalo County, home of the Crow Creek tribe on the Missouri River, has the lowest median hosuehold income in the country, just $18,860. (Remember, median means it's the halfway mark: half the households in Fort Thompson are living on less than that.)

South Dakota has seven counties among the 30 with the highest overall poverty rates. However, greater suburban Sioux Falls in Lincoln County has the ninth-lowest poverty rate in the nation, a mere 4.2%. Median household income in Lincoln County is $72,894, almost four times the median in Buffalo County.

Child poverty in Lincoln County is a mere 5.4%, compared with 76.7% in Ziebach County. As this PDF map of South Dakota school districts shows, we have a concentration of white districts (o.k., pale green) around Sioux Falls with exceptionally low child poverty rates, below 9%.

Add those extremes, and South Dakota comes out right in the middle, with a 14.2% poverty rate among all ages, just below the national average of 14.3%. We rank 27th among the states and D.C. New Hampshire, Alaska, Maryland, Connecticut, and New Jersey are best off, with poverty below 10%. West Virginia, New Mexico, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Mississippi have the most poverty, with Mississippi the only state cracking 20% (21.8%, to be exact).

We are similarly middling in child poverty: our state rate of 18.9% of all kids (i.e., under 18) in poverty ranks us 26th nationally, under the national average of 20.0%. But being a little above average still means nearly 111,000 of our neighbors, including 37,000 of our kids, are in poverty.

Table 1: Poverty and Income in the United States
Source: U.S. Census Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, 2009

State and County People in Poverty % in Poverty Kids (Under 18) in Poverty % Under 18 in Poverty Median Income
United States 42,868,163 14.3 14,656,962 20 50,221
Alabama 805,223 17.5 274,243 24.6 40,547
Alaska 61,949 9.1 22,221 12.3 66,712
Arizona 1,065,728 16.5 396,006 23.3 48,711
Arkansas 519,026 18.5 185,268 26.6 37,888
California 5,132,640 14.2 1,846,994 19.9 58,925
Colorado 618,676 12.6 201,208 16.6 55,735
Connecticut 318,008 9.3 95,570 12 66,906
Delaware 96,409 11.2 33,851 16.7 56,985
Dist. Columbia 100,489 17.6 32,621 29 58,906
Florida 2,712,692 15 857,326 21.5 44,755
Georgia 1,585,116 16.6 575,429 22.7 47,469
Hawaii 131,896 10.4 39,214 13.7 63,741
Idaho 217,528 14.4 76,630 18.5 44,644
Illinois 1,671,343 13.3 586,040 18.7 53,974
Indiana 895,619 14.4 310,140 19.9 45,427
Iowa 342,309 11.8 109,384 15.6 48,065
Kansas 359,692 13.2 118,187 17.1 47,709
Kentucky 771,876 18.4 251,684 25.3 40,061
Louisiana 769,001 17.6 274,805 24.8 42,460
Maine 161,504 12.6 46,349 17.5 45,708
Maryland 509,141 9.2 157,164 11.8 69,193
Massachusetts 658,497 10.3 187,931 13.3 64,057
Michigan 1,565,559 16.1 513,550 22.2 45,254
Minnesota 558,118 10.9 172,134 13.9 55,621
Mississippi 620,446 21.8 230,409 30.7 36,764
Missouri 850,316 14.6 291,359 20.7 45,149
Montana 142,257 15 44,840 20.9 42,222
Nebraska 212,312 12.2 67,346 15.3 47,470
Nevada 323,738 12.4 117,742 17.6 53,310
New Hampshire 110,769 8.6 31,278 11 60,734
New Jersey 798,258 9.4 269,659 13.3 68,444
New Mexico 359,030 18.2 129,552 25.8 42,830
New York 2,708,119 14.2 878,114 20.2 54,554
North Carolina 1,475,063 16.2 503,713 22.5 43,754
North Dakota 72,911 11.7 20,022 14.1 47,898
Ohio 1,699,288 15.1 577,026 21.6 45,467
Oklahoma 575,711 16.1 199,277 22.1 41,716
Oregon 536,813 14.3 166,073 19.4 48,325
Pennsylvania 1,517,347 12.5 466,423 17.1 49,501
Rhode Island 122,379 12 39,988 17.9 53,243
South Carolina 753,286 17.1 258,848 24.4 42,580
South Dakota 110,863 14.2 36,884 18.9 45,048
Tennessee 1,055,635 17.2 352,943 24 41,715
Texas 4,143,077 17.1 1,655,085 24.3 48,286
Utah 321,441 11.7 110,852 12.9 55,183
Vermont 69,137 11.5 17,371 14 51,219
Virginia 805,555 10.6 255,156 14 59,372
Washington 803,266 12.3 249,767 16.2 56,479
West Virginia 316,155 17.8 91,059 24.1 37,423
Wisconsin 682,973 12.4 215,052 16.7 49,994
Wyoming 53,974 10.2 17,176 13.2 54,400

Breaking it down by county, my home county of Lake comes out 18th for median household income at $45,322, not quite $300 above the statewide median, and a few thousand above my own. Lake County's poverty rates for all residents and for kids are about the same, a tick or two above 12%.

1074 counties in the United States have higher median household incomes than our fair Lake County. 2101 counties have lower median household incomes than we do. Not bad!

Table 2: Poverty and income in South Dakota, by County.
Source: U.S. Census Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, 2009
Place People in Poverty % in Poverty Kids (under 18) in Poverty % Kids in Poverty Median Income
South Dakota 110,863 14.2 36,884 18.9 45,048
Aurora 348 13 127 19.7 40,900
Beadle 2,138 13.5 719 19 42,348
Bennett 1,242 37.8 530 49 32,137
Bon Homme 864 15.5 196 15.9 39,485
Brookings 3,942 14.7 574 10.3 46,733
Brown 3,455 10.2 944 12.1 47,378
Brule 739 14.6 256 20 40,113
Buffalo 893 43.6 405 51.5 18,860
Butte 1,343 14.2 488 20.6 38,015
Campbell 162 12 31 12.9 39,048
Charles Mix 2,137 24.3 954 36.2 33,135
Clark 428 12.7 141 18.6 40,806
Clay 2,573 23.1 441 19.5 38,421
Codington 2,952 11.4 856 13.3 44,548
Corson 1,578 39 691 52.6 26,426
Custer 830 10.9 271 18.6 46,441
Davison 2,384 13.1 670 15.4 41,441
Day 848 15.9 275 22.2 36,702
Deuel 403 9.6 132 13.3 43,678
Dewey 1,834 31.2 849 40.9 29,804
Douglas 355 12.6 108 16.8 41,049
Edmunds 463 12.2 127 13.7 46,490
Fall River 1,264 18.6 367 27.8 34,464
Faulk 282 13 72 15.1 43,600
Grant 744 10.7 192 12.2 42,559
Gregory 796 20.3 252 30 31,580
Haakon 233 13.5 72 18.3 40,447
Hamlin 623 10.9 241 14.3 46,444
Hand 377 11.9 109 15.7 42,791
Hanson 287 8.1 124 12.4 53,377
Harding 169 15.6 46 20.5 39,496
Hughes 1,835 11.4 562 14.4 56,239
Hutchinson 851 12.5 270 16.4 39,880
Hyde 186 13.7 59 18.8 40,674
Jackson 947 36.1 447 52.7 30,375
Jerauld 305 16 79 20.4 39,786
Jones 170 16.4 71 28.6 38,843
Kingsbury 573 11.2 140 12.6 41,629
Lake 1,390 12.2 294 12.1 45,322
Lawrence 3,355 15 800 17.6 41,227
Lincoln 1,704 4.2 641 5.4 72,894
Lyman 921 23.8 383 32.8 34,318
McCook 533 9.8 167 11.6 45,730
McPherson 430 18.1 107 22.1 31,945
Marshall 547 13.5 178 18.3 39,303
Meade 3,001 12.9 921 16.6 44,568
Mellette 757 38.2 332 52.7 27,455
Miner 295 12.5 87 15.5 38,370
Minnehaha 18,519 10.5 5,642 13.1 48,443
Moody 609 9.7 204 13 47,045
Pennington 13,863 14.1 5,013 20.4 46,972
Perkins 490 17.4 139 22.9 33,755
Potter 259 13 75 19.4 43,348
Roberts 2,008 20.6 795 29 36,718
Sanborn 333 13.9 103 18.6 41,364
Shannon 6,977 51.6 3,090 57.2 25,048
Spink 743 12.3 214 14.3 43,905
Stanley 270 9.7 107 15.5 51,185
Sully 146 10.9 39 11.3 48,816
Todd 4,491 45.3 2,191 57.1 24,742
Tripp 1,107 20.4 400 30.1 38,887
Turner 739 9.2 203 10.9 47,749
Union 889 6.2 290 8.1 58,785
Walworth 867 17.2 275 24.2 36,704
Yankton 2,484 12.3 711 14.5 46,028
Ziebach 1,582 62 593 76.7 25,084

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this. Eye opening.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ip posted this recently at Intelligent Discontent and at a myriad other places:

    "The reading of the Declaration of Independence by members of the reporting staff at NPR gets me every time. Past on-air personalities, some now correspondents at the pearly gates, also read for this decades-old feature. The tears stream down my face right up to the line that begins, ” He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare…”

    That’s when it hits me right between the eyes.

    When those words were being written, thousands of cultures inhabited a continent that seemed to keep growing huge ripe plums just waiting for Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton and the rest to pick and pick and pick and pick. Already, the Chesapeake Bay estuary had been mostly denuded of native vegetation, not to mention of its former human inhabitants. Slaves tilled the fields and built the infrastructure, the ancestors of the Lakota and other Siouan groups that had been forced westward out of North Carolina generations earlier, traded with the Spanish and French while forging their own alliances (and marriages) with other indigenous peoples.

    So, we’ve come a long way, init?

    Maybe it’s time to consider a radical alternative to reservations land-locked within South Dakota, Montana, and other States. Political manifestations on tribal lands are becoming more organized as frustrations mount with legislative bodies paralyzed by entrenched racism and dwindling federal appropriations to State and local governments.

    Broken treaties reek of American exceptionalism.

    While the Palestinian homeland looks like holes in the slice of Swiss cheese analogous to the illegal Israeli state, progress toward resolutions of Native trust disputes would have far more political traction after tribes secede from the States in which they reside and then be ratified to form one State sans contiguous borders with two Senators and a House member.

    The United States Constitution is the finest instrument ever created by the human hand. The Preamble is the body, the Bill of Rights is the neck, the Amendments are the strings. It is a fluid universal execution of human and civil rights.

    It’s time for all Americans to enjoy the protection of law by being part of one nation: erase the artificial borders and grant Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness to all the people of North America…Mexico, Central America, Canada, even the Caribbean if they’ll have us.

    ip is not a New World Order guy, does not support the North American Union (god bless you. please, mr. roddenberry) and believes that the US Constitution is a big enough canvas in order to paint a more perfect masterpiece, a big enough score for all to sing. No violence. No more drug wars.

    Read Alaska’s constitution. The last states ratified are the most egalitarian. Let’s debate it and draft a dream referendum to be delivered by and for the people of Mexico to dissolve their constitution and petition for Statehood."

    ReplyDelete

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