Why is youngstown so poor

Come , 62 percent of majority-Black census tracts across all eight counties were considered high poverty. Finding 7: High-poverty neighborhoods have lost significant economic ground, and look increasingly less like the counties in which they are located.

Between and , the poverty rate increased from 25 percent to 42 percent in these high-poverty neighborhoods; population decreased by 33 percent; and the white population decreased from 52 percent to 32 percent. That 42 percent poverty rate is over two-and-a-half times what it is in these eight large urban counties as a whole 16 percent. While these high-poverty neighborhoods lost one-third of their population since , the total population of these eight counties has remained unchanged since Overall, their population declined a barely-perceptible 0.

While two-thirds of the population of these high-poverty neighborhoods belong to a minority group, two-thirds of the population in these eight large urban counties is white. Instead, we are seeing persistent suburban sprawl and urban disinvestment, vacancy, and abandonment, which has hit many predominantly-Black neighborhoods the hardest.

A simple comparison between metropolitan Cleveland and Washington, DC, shows what Ohio cities are up against. In , median household income in Washington, DC, was 9 percent higher than Cleveland. In , median household income in Washington, DC, was 82 percent higher than Cleveland. Not only has the gap between these regions grown, but the geography of the economic gaps within these regions looks different as well.

The map of Cleveland below estimates household income by block and provides clear visual evidence of the huge gap in incomes between the central city and the outer suburbs. The second expresses the same data at the same geographic scale in Washington, where there is far less of a gap between the central city and the outer suburbs and household incomes are much higher overall.

These macroeconomic national trends have been exacerbated by conditions within each metropolitan area. The eight large counties, in the aggregate, have the exact same population that they did in , yet all of them have seen widespread suburban development, even as nearly all of their core city populations have actually declined.

Since , the population of Columbus has increased by 59 percent, while Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron, Dayton, Canton, and Youngstown have collectively lost 27 percent of their population — ranging from a high of 44 percent population decline in Youngstown to a low of 17 percent population decline in Akron.

Many neighborhoods in these cities and increasingly their inner suburbs experienced a pervasive and vicious cycle: population loss, which led to more poverty, disinvestment, and abandonment, which led to more population loss, and so on. This pattern of disinvestment, abandonment, and outward growth is not just the result of the free market at work — it is aided by a wide array of public policies that help reinforce it, like transportation and economic development decisions.

Even in a slow-growth, low traffic-congestion state like Ohio, billions of state and federal dollars have been spent on highway improvements to build job hubs in the outer suburbs, moving jobs and shopping opportunities further away from urban residents in cash-strapped cities. Meanwhile, these same residents have seen the infrastructure in their own neighborhoods crumble from neglect and disinvestment.

States would be well-advised to focus more of their efforts on place-based economic development that is not spatially-agnostic, and on transportation policies that support urban neighborhoods.

The uninsured rates were highest last year in Texas Estimates released Thursday include only places of about 65, population or above. Here are the poverty rates for Ohio places large enough to be included. Rich Exner , data analysis editor for cleveland. Follow on Twitter RichExner. Find data-related stories at cleveland. Follow coverage of census coverage at this link. Read previous census coverage. Pre-coronavirus, incomes were up in the U. Jon Husted pushes for Ohioans to complete their census forms.

As census work resumes, concerns loom of undercount in places like Cleveland. Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan stand to lose U. House seats after census, analysis shows. Blacks, Hispanics, young adults less likely to answer census Pew study.

The low incomes are reflected in the city's low property values. Like many poor cities, crime rates are high in Youngstown. There were 3, property crimes for every , city residents in , well above the national property crime rate of 2, per , Low-income areas often also have low property values, and Dayton is no exception.

Dayton may be an especially bad place for families with school-aged children. Standardized test scores in Dayton's public schools are well below the comparable results across Ohio as a whole. Only 15 cities nationwide have a higher poverty rate than Canton, Ohio, where The high poverty rate is likely due in part to the bleak jobs picture.

The number of people working in the city fell by 1. In comparison, employment climbed 3. Low-income areas often also have low property values, and Canton has some of the cheapest real estate in the country.