Child Poverty is Highest in Rural Counties in U.S.

(January 2008) While many people think of poverty in the United States as primarily an urban problem, data released by the Census Bureau this week indicate that most of the counties with high child poverty rates are located in rural America.¹  Of the 100 counties with the highest child poverty rates in 2005, 95 are rural counties (see table). All 100 counties have child poverty rates above 40 percent, more than twice the national rate of 18.5 percent in 2005.

Many of the counties with high rates of child poverty are relatively remote and sparsely populated. Among rural counties, the lower the population density, the higher the child poverty rate is likely to be. The child poverty rate for the most remote rural counties collectively (28 percent) is 11 percentage points higher than the rate in the most urban counties. More than half of the 100 counties with the highest child poverty rates have populations of fewer than 20,000 people.

There is also a strong racial overlay. Of the 100 counties with the highest child poverty rates, two-thirds (66) are “majority minority,” or less than 50 percent non-Hispanic white. And many others have disproportionately high minority populations. On average, minorities make up 70 percent of the population in these 100 counties.

Nearly three-fourths (74) of these counties are in the South-almost all in the rural South. Mississippi had the greatest number of counties with high child poverty rates: 17. Almost all are black-majority counties in the  Mississippi Delta.

In the Midwest and West, counties with high child poverty tend to have large American Indian populations. Nine of the highest child poverty rates are in South Dakota, for example, which is home to many Indian reservations.

None of the counties with the highest child poverty rates were located in the Northeast.

The 100 counties with the lowest child poverty rates are mostly located in the wealthy suburbs of large metropolitan areas. Rural counties with the lowest child poverty rates tend to be recreational and/or retirement destinations with high levels of natural amenities such as mountains, lakes, or other attractions.

100 U.S. Counties with Highest Child Poverty Rates, 2005