10 Cities With The Lowest Poverty Rates: U.S. Census

A growing number of Americans entered into poverty last year. But certain cities survived the recession with especially low poverty rates.

Across metropolitan America, poverty rates vary widely, according to a recent report from the U.S. Census Bureau. Indeed, the city with the highest poverty rate and that with the lowest are separated by a full 25 percentage points. The report examined poverty levels in areas with more than 500,000 people last year.

Some cities with the lowest poverty rates are also known for having large numbers of highly wealthy people, although the relationship is less than exact. New York and Los Angeles, for example, are two cities with the greatest number of individuals worth $30 million or more, according to a report from Wealth-X, which tracks the preferences of the ultra-wealthy around the globe, yet the two fail to make the Census Bureau's list of cities with the lowest poverty rates.

Boston and Washington D.C., however, have poverty rates well below the national average of 15.1 percent in 2010, at 10.3 percent and 8.4 percent, respectively. At the same time the cities ranked ninth and fifth on Wealth-X's list of cities with the most ultra-wealthy.

In general, highest-poverty cities tend to be found in southern cities, low-poverty cities in the North, a trend mirrored at the state level. Speficially, seven out of the 10 cities with the lowest poverty rates are located in the Northeast.

Here are 10 large metropolitan areas with the lowest poverty rates, according to the U.S. Census Bureau:

RATE IT!   |  

VOTE

Poorer Than That

Richer Than That

CURRENT TOP 5 PICK YOUR OWN TOP 5

USERS WHO VOTED

NEW! CREATE YOUR OWN SLIDESHOW

Comments

[goatini]

10:00 PM on 10/29/2011

???? # 4 ????

I dunno, I've spent some time in Stamford over the past several years, and IMHO it's kind of armpitty. It's the home of WWE (nee WWF), and the Maury show. A declasse dump with a few bright civic and entertainment/dining hotspots, but that's IT.

[Steven Harden]

03:07 AM on 10/27/2011

The cost of living in the DC region is MUCH higher than almost in anywhere in the country.

Therefore, even though a person may not meet the federal guidelines for "poverty", if a person isn't making at least $15 dollars an hour in the DC region, they are struggling badly. BTW...If you make $15 an hour in DC, you're in still BIG financial trouble.

[Talossa]

12:35 AM on 10/27/2011

> seven out of the 10 cities with the lowest poverty rates are located in the Northeast.

Gee. What a surprise. Progressive politics and prosperity go together.

[TJ Logan]

05:20 PM on 10/26/2011

I lived in DC in the 1960's when we were a democracy and the city then was not very pleasant.

But now that we have become a "dollar-ocracy" we see that DC is prosperous as a result of all those bribes (campaign contributions), high priced lawyers, slick lobbyists, and multi-millionaire congressmen. You gotta love our new political system.

[Jill1975]

07:48 PM on 10/26/2011

DC has a very large public employee sector and public employees are paid far more than private sector counterparts with the same skills education and years on the job not to mention the fact that their pensions are extravagantly generous.

[Marcus1]

12:54 PM on 10/27/2011

Who do you blame for private sector employees being paid less? You would think good pay, good benefits and good pensions like in Germany would be a good thing. After all Germany has a superior GDP, employment, union participation at 65% compared to the U.S's 11% , universal health care , and superior entitlements.
Corporations lowball employees with the phoney excuse of being more competitive but Germany, Canada, Sweden, Netherlands, Switzerland all make their systems work.

[Mister Grumpy]

11:42 AM on 10/26/2011

The studies indicate that those cities that vote primarily Republican are proverty stricken........

Seems Republicans voters continiously vote against their best interests.......

Doesn't say much for their intelligence does it?...........

[rdk70816]

09:34 AM on 10/26/2011

Consider the poverty rate within the city of Washington DC. It is the worst of the worst. What does that prove?

[Mister Grumpy]

11:43 AM on 10/26/2011

Yep....... you venture away from the tourist areas and DC is like a war zone...........

[Victor Contreras]

02:18 PM on 10/28/2011

If you were to ever live in DC you would also realize that it is an extremely small city. There are bad parts, and one can even say that arguably at least one third of the city is entrenched in poverty, when you think about that in comparison to any other area where there is much more poverty and much more room, it doesn't look so bad.

[StJames]

09:26 AM on 10/26/2011

Speficially,?????    C'mon folks...pay attention and do some editing.   This rag is rapidly going downhill.

[BuckyJamesDio]

09:41 AM on 10/26/2011

It's a combo word - specifically and officially. Saves space, therefore saving valuable electrons. It's HuffPo's way of being greener.

At least that's what I keep telling myself.

[StJames]

03:20 PM on 10/26/2011

LOL...Thanks for the chuckle.  I find it so depressing that many of these HP contributors either can't spell or can't read...and many know nothing of grammar.

[theobserver4]

09:08 AM on 10/26/2011

Are the majority of Americans sure that they want to follow the GOP in their goal to "take the country back" to the 1800's? Doesn't seem that the confederate holdouts are doing so well......

[lacrosselamore]

09:08 AM on 10/26/2011

Notice that the least impoverished area is the Washington DC area? It's also the place where home prices are the most stable or on the rise.
The cash is flowing in DC, for the 'Gubberment shills and functtonaries there IS no recession, no housing crisis, no lay offs no pay cuts. That is why they don't care. They have recession-proof jobs and secure retirements thanks to the suckers out here paying for everything. That is why they don't care about the American People. They got theirs so screw the rest of us.

[Victor Contreras]

02:20 PM on 10/28/2011

Not everyone that lives in Washington DC has a government job... There are tons of IT jobs, service industry jobs, labor jobs in the area. That and the counties surrounding DC continuously reinvest in their communities and have created a rather great place to live in. Don't assume that everyone in DC works for the government.

[Jenny M Derfler]

08:44 PM on 11/04/2011

Yeah, but I still think that DC people are out of touch with the rest of the country.

[QuantProgrammer]

08:50 AM on 10/26/2011

Wealth being transferred from rest of the country to DC, no wonder DC has such low poverty.

[OG]

07:54 AM on 10/26/2011

So 10% is now acceptable? This is now the goal for cities and poverty rates should coincide with unemployment numbers?

[SouthSwell]

07:31 AM on 10/26/2011

I'd like to see a list of the cities with the most wealth inequality.

[yoozum]

11:16 AM on 10/26/2011

I'm sure HP will write about it soon. There seems to be a current trend of listing top 10 wealth/poverty facts every day.

[slobone]

07:00 AM on 10/26/2011

This list doesn't really tell you what you want to know about where all the poor people live. The Census Bureau definitions of metro areas tend to reach way out into the prosperous suburbs, which can outweigh the many poor people living in the center city.

So you get some cities, like Des Moines, that don't have much actual poverty, but don't have very many rich people either. And on the same list is the Washington metro area, which has plenty of both.

[womenforaction]

01:28 AM on 10/26/2011

I guess the Occupy Protestors should be occupying these cities if they are attempting to send messages to the 1%. I think that would make them severely uncomfortable. But expect to be arrested if any sort of attempt to protest will be made. The wealthy does not exclude themselves from other classes for nothing!

[nopojoe]

11:20 PM on 10/25/2011

8-9% poverty rate is something to brag about?
yeah, I forgot. The Great Society was LBJs plan, not BHOs. Or GWBs or WJC. or...