Poverty rates are critical indicators of the economic well-being of a community and its residents. The level of poverty greatly impacts the availability of financial resources in a community as well as the types of services provided by the local government. Poverty rates can be computed in a number of different ways. The Census Bureau uses a set of income thresholds based on family size and composition to define poverty. If a family's total income is less than the family's threshold (based on the number and age of family members), then every individual in that family is considered in poverty. The Census Bureau's poverty thresholds are updated for inflation using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), but there is only one set of thresholds for the nation. This means local cost of living variations are not taken into consideration. For 2010, the poverty threshold for a family of four with two adults and two children was $22,113. Click here for more information on the Census Bureau's poverty thresholds.
We can look at the poverty in two ways. There is the rate itself and there is the number of people living in poverty. Growing cities can see a decrease in poverty rates while the actual number of people living in poverty increases. Where possible both are in this analysis.
The number of people living in poverty in North Carolina has increased in recent time and continues to grow. Based on ACS estimates for the period 2008-2010, there were nearly 1.5 million people living in poverty in North Carolina. This is over 218,000 more than were estimated for the period 2005-2007.
North Carolina's poverty rate was lower than the nationwide rate in 1990 and 2000; however, the state's poverty rate has been growing faster than the nation as a whole, and exceeded the United States' poverty rate in 2005-2007. Within this time period the state's poverty rate was 14.8 percent compared to the nation's 13.3 percent. By 2008-2010 the state's poverty rate increased to 16.2 percent while the nation's poverty rate rose to 14.4 percent. Four cities (New Bern, Greenville, Kinston, and Lumberton) were consistently in the group with the ten highest poverty rates. All of these cities are located in Eastern North Carolina. Six cities (Matthews, Cary, Garner, Apex, Cornelius, and Huntersville were consistently in the group with the ten lowest poverty rates. All of these are in the Research Triangle or Charlotte regions.
Poverty rates were calculated from the following sources and tables for the referenced years: