Hidden Crisis:

Poverty in North Carolina

A CCV Special Report:

 

 

Today we hear it often reported that the state of the economy is quite positive. Unemployment is low, inflation has been kept at bay and the economy continues to grow at a moderate pace. The fact remains that millions of Americans live below the poverty line, and in North Carolina, although the “Sunbelt” phenomenon (massive in-migration from Rust Belt States) is by no means exhausted, the situation is much the same.

Definitions of poverty vary according to circumstance, and even cultural factors can be important in any attempt to objectively define poverty. International agencies cooperating in a plan to alleviate world hunger in the 1990s defined poverty as having an income of under $1 per day. Within the United States a more complex definition has been set at having an annual income under $17,029 for a family of four. Yet, according to a report of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2004, as many as 38 million Americans live in food insecure homes, where some persons may occasionally experience hunger in spite of the fact that some occupants of the home may be working. This figure includes as many as 13.9 million children.

In North Carolina, where African Americans comprised 21.6% of the total population in 2000, poverty among Blacks remains an important indicator of the state of the economy as a whole. The data provided below are incomplete, and does not reflect comparative information on Hispanics, Women, Children or other important groups. Even comparisons over time for a single group can be problematic, where statistical methods of computation are reckoned according to different definitions.

The following, however, should be taken seriously as an indication of the level of poverty in recent times within North Carolina. It is based on data collected from tables as provided by the U.S. Bureau of Census, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and other sources, for the given dates.

The reader will note the apparent discrepancy between poverty rates and per capita income. The data suggest that while income may be increasing in the aggregate, the rate of poverty for North Carolina actually increased from Year 2000 to 2005, a fact that is consistent with the national average. Such figures suggest that Blacks may not be deriving a proportionate share of an increase in income for the state as a whole. The figures indicate that Black poverty in North Carolina is on the rise, while home ownership, an important indicator of economic status, is actually decreasing among Blacks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Additional information obtained from the UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunities and by the North Carolina Institute for Medicine’s Child Health Report Card, indicates the following:

 

· North Carolina ranks 50th among the states in Union membership.

· 21.3% of N.C. children live in poverty, according to U.S. Bureau of Census, 2005, reflecting a 12% increase over Year 2000.

· The poverty rate reaches 40% for the general population in some rural counties.

· 12% of N.C. children have no health insurance, reflecting an 18% increase since 2000.

· Infant mortality among minorities as a whole (including Hispanics) is more than twice the rate for that of whites.

· Confirmed deaths due to child abuse has increased by 28% since 2000, according to a report by the North Carolina Institute for Medicine.

· 37% of clients at the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina through 2005 were employed (the working poor).

· 27% of N.C. households are made up of persons living alone.

· At 6.3%, N.C. ranks third among Southern states in the rate of Hispanic immigration.

 

 

U.S. Census data also indicates that a larger proportion of poverty and low income exists in rural parts of North Carolina where economic consolidation in agriculture and a lack of government support for small farmers has had a devastating impact in many areas. For comparative data on rural poverty in North Carolina, go to the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center webpage, at http://www.ncruralcenter.org/index.asp.

 

 

 

Carolina Civic Voice

                             Winter 2006-07  Vol.  6, No 4