As might be expected, the just-ended recession did little to help poverty problems.
Numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Wednesday show a 0.2 percent increase in the number of people who lived in poverty in 2008 compared to 2007. Nationally, the number swelled by a little more than 1 million, with just over 39.1 million Americans living in poverty in 2008.
That’s 13.2 percent of the U.S. population.
In Georgia, the numbers were also grimmer with 57,014 more Georgians added to the poverty roles between 2007 and 2008. A total of a little more than 1.38 million Georgians — 14.7 percent of the state’s population — were living in poverty in 2008, an increase of 0.4 percent from 2007.
Drilling down further, the metro Albany area saw some uneven numbers. Dougherty County’s poverty level was flat from 2007 to 2008 at 25.3 percent, well above the state percentage. Lee County saw a worsening from 2007 to 2008, with 10.1 percent living in poverty last year compared to 9.6 percent the year before.
Two counties in metro Albany actually saw a decrease, though their numbers are still far too high. Baker County dropped from 26.8 percent living in poverty in 2007 to 26 percent in 2008, while Terrell County, which still has the five-county metro area’s highest percentage, dropped from 34.5 percent to 28.9 percent in that time.
Worth County, meanwhile, rose from 18.3 percent living in poverty in 2007 to 21.1 percent in 2008. Mitchell County, which is adjacent to Dougherty but not in the metropolitan statistical area, rose from 25.3 percent to 27.3 percent.
When you look at school-age children living in poverty, the numbers for our area are equally somber. Looking at six county school districts, three districts saw rises in children ages 5-17 living in poverty conditions between 2007 and 2008. Dougherty County, the largest district, saw a 1.2 percent rise, from 31 percent in 2007 to 32.2 percent in 2008. Lee County went up a tenth of a percent, from 10.2 percent in 2007 to 10.3 percent last year, and Worth County rose from 2007’s 23.5 percent to 28.2 percent in 2008.
Mitchell County saw a drop from 30.2 percent to 29.2 percent between the two years, and the smallest district, Baker County, fell from 31.2 percent of children in poverty in 2007 to 28.1 percent last year. The final number was still far too high, but Terrell County saw the biggest improvement in poverty rate of all the group, dropping from an incredible 41.6 percent in 2007 to 33.5 percent of children 5-17 living in poverty in 2008.
In the six counties combined, 9,433, or 27.3 percent, of the 34,594 children in the school districts are living in poverty.
This is the problem that faces our region. Nearly three out of 10 children are adversely impacted by a condition that fosters illiteracy, poor health, teenage pregnancy and drug abuse.
If we want to improve our area’s work force and standard of living, if we want to attract new businesses and residents, the problem of poverty has to be addressed.
After all, it’s hard to concentrate on a complex math homework problem when your stomach is grumbling.