The Cities With the Most Homeless Students

Homeless youth face numerous extra challenges that make reaching a more stable position in life very difficult, like being unable to attend school and facing higher risk of substance abuse.

River Oaks, an addiction treatment center, is raising awareness about the pervasiveness of homelessness in student populations around the country by publishing analysis of the cities with the highest number, per capita, of homeless students.

Public school districts collect information about their student population, and the U.S. Department of Education makes this available. We decided to take a closer look at these numbers to see how cities across the U.S. compare when it comes to student homelessness. Our analysis includes the 100 largest cities, according to metropolitan area population size. We also found the three school districts in each state that have the highest count of students in this category.

According to this analysis, Jackson, Mississippi; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Syracuse, New York have the highest number of homeless students per 100,000 residents. The cities with the lowest number of homeless students per 100,000 residents: Phoenix, Arizona; San Jose, California; and Birmingham, Alabama.

The post is infographic-rich, with more information on methodology, and more ways of slicing the data for insight into this societal challenge.