Putting Poverty in its Places

The likelihood of being poor and what it’s like to be poor are different in different types of places, and which policies might work to reduce poverty also varies by type of place, says Bill Barnes.

1 minute read

November 15, 2010, 12:00 PM PST

By Tim Halbur


Barnes writes that while the poverty rate in big cities and suburbia gets the attention, "...at least as startling and certainly as important is the 21.8 percent poverty rate that occurs in rural cities, the principal municipalities that lie outside metropolitan areas. This is the highest poverty rate of all these major categories of places."

Barnes discusses new Census figures that show a significant rise in poverty in the U.S.

Thanks to Bill Barnes

Monday, November 8, 2010 in Nation's Cities Weekly

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