While Fayette County no longer tops the state for unemployment — and didn't for the majority of 2015 — it still finds itself alone, according to a recent report, as the state's poorest county.
The financial website 24/7 Wall Street released its annual "The Poorest County in Each State" report last month, which much as it did in 2015 had the county rated as the poorest in Indiana.
The report was based on several factors, ranging from poverty rates, median household income, educational attainment and unemployment. Those figures came from a review of the United States Census Bureau's American Community Survey from 2010 to 2014, along with U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Much as last year's study illustrated, the median household income for Fayette County — $37,833 — was far below the state's median household income of $48,737 for the same time period. The national median household income was $53,482.
That figure, coupled with the county's unemployment rate — 8 percent at the time of this study — and poverty rate of 20.6 percent, is what led to its ranking as the state's poorest, according to 24/7 Wall Street. Both those figures were above the national rates of 6.2 percent and 15.6 percent, respectively.
"A typical household in Fayette County, Indiana’s poorest, earns $10,904 less than the typical household earns across the state," the report stated. "As in other poor counties, area residents have relatively low educational attainment rates. Only 10.1 percent of county adults have at least a bachelor’s degree, and 80.1 percent have earned a high school diploma, each some of the lower percentages in the country."
The national average of adults with at least a bachelor's degree, per the report, is 29.3 percent.