Community Corner

Study: Poverty in the Suburbs Matches Chicago

The suburbs are not the affluent enclaves they once claimed to be.

Chicago’s suburbs now have as many poor residents as the Windy City, according to an article on the soaring poverty rate in the Daily Herald.

The Poverty Matters report, which was released by the Heartland Alliance's Social IMPACT Research Center, draws three key findings:

  • Poverty exploded in the suburbs. In 1990, about one-third of the Chicago region’s poor population lived in the suburbs; in 2011, that has soared to 50 percent. That means about the same number of people experience poverty in the suburbs as they do in Chicago.

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  • Surge in suburban poverty well-outpaced the 29 percent population increase from 1990 to 2011. Further, the increase in poverty was greater among children and all racial and ethnic groups in the suburbs than it was in Chicago.

  • From 1990 to 2011, the suburbs saw improvements or gains that were less pronounced than in Chicago.

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    The Daily Herald notes that researchers call the trend "the suburbanization of poverty."

    "It definitely flies in the face of the image of affluence in the suburbs," research associate Jennifer Clary told the paper, adding that the shift is a nationwide trend and not specific to the Chicago metro area.

    The Poverty Matters report uses 2011 federal income guidelines to define poverty—that is, an annual income less than:

    • $11,484 for a single person.
    • $14,657 for a couple.
    • $17,916 for a family of three.
    • $23,021 for a family of four.
    Read the full Poverty Matters report.
    Read the full Daily Herald story.


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