Regional snapshot of poorest counties
Indiana: Fayette County
County median household income, 2009-2013: $37,391
State median household income, 2009-2013: $48,248
Poverty rate, 2009-2013: 23 percent
Unemployment, 2013: 10.3 percent
Ohio: Athens County
County median household income, 2009-2013: $33,823
State median household income, 2009-2013: $48,308
Poverty rate, 2009-2013: 31.7 percent
Unemployment, 2013: 8.4 percent
Kentucky: McCreary County
County median household income, 2009-2013: $20,972
State median household income, 2009-2013: $43,036
Poverty rate, 2009-2013: 30.3 percent
Unemployment, 2013: 13.5 percent
Michigan: Lake County, Michigan
County median household income, 2009-2013: $29,379
State median household income, 2009-2013: $48,411
Poverty rate, 2009-2013: 27.9 percent
Unemployment, 2013: 13.1 percent
Source: 24/7 Wall St., United States Census Bureau, United States Bureau of Labor Statistics
Already topping the state’s list for unemployment, Fayette County now tops another unflattering list.
A report released last week by the financial website 24/7 Wall Street, titled “The Poorest County in Each State,” has named Fayette County as the poorest county in Indiana, based on several factors including unemployment and poverty rates, educational levels and median income.
The newest report comes at a time when Fayette County led the state in unemployment rate for November 2014 at 7.9 percent — the latest month available — and is among the top in the state for food insecurity and poverty rates.
The 24/7 Wall St. report examined data from the United States Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and found that in all 50 states, there was at least one county in which median annual household income came in at more than $7,000 less that the state’s average median income.
Such was the case for Fayette County, which had a county median household income — between 2009 and 2013 — of $37,391, roughly $10,857 less than the median household income for Indiana during that same time period, which was $48,248, according to the report.
In addition to the disparity in household income between Fayette County and the state, the county’s 23 percent poverty rate between 2009-2013 and its overall 2013 unemployment rate of 10.3 percent were taken into account when deciding the state’s poorest county. Both rates, according to the report, were above the national average.
Also examined in determining the country’s poorest county’s was educational levels, where Fayette County had less than 9 percent of its adult population who completed a bachelor’s degree or higher between 2009-2013 — far less than the national average of 28.8 percent, according to the report.
It was the educational levels, in fact, that the reports states might have played a role in the county’s poverty rate.
“The poor college attainment rate may have exacerbated the area’s poverty rate, as residents may have also found it more difficult to find a job without a higher education,” wrote Thomas C. Frolich of 24/7 Wall St. “Nearly one in three children lived in poverty between 2009 and 2013, and more than one in 10 labor force participants were unemployed.”
The county was also one of 26 of the poorest counties named in the report to have the majority of its population be urban, as 55.5 percent of the county’s population — according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau decennial census — resided within the Connersville city limits.
For Fayette County Commissioner Zane Badore, the report and its results is something that all elected officials within the county need to consider now and into the future.
“We’re on a lot of lists but not the right lists,” he said. “We have to do what we can do to make it a better place. We have to start thinking differently to not make that list. I think we all need to put our heads together.”
While Badore said that Fayette County and Connersville are great places to live, and is positive that there are better times ahead for the area both socially and economically, the fix won’t happen overnight.
“It didn’t (get this way) overnight and it’s not going to be fixed overnight,” he said. “It probably won’t be fixed for several years to come.”
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