Poverty Segregation in Nonmetro Counties: A Spatial Exploration of Segregation Patterns in the US

Abstract

Abstract Most research on segregation focuses on racial residential segregation in metropolitan statistical areas and typically uses a-spatial measures of segregation. What is less clear is if segregation measures operate in a similar fashion in nonmetropolitan areas and if spatial patterns exist for poverty segregation in nonmetro counties. The purpose of this research was to examine multiple dimensions of poverty segregation in the United States the period 2006–2010 for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties. Data for this analysis come from the 2006–2010 American Community Survey 5 year estimates, the 2000 U.S. Census of Population and Housing, Summary File 3 and the USDA Economic Research Service. Four different measures of poverty segregation were calculated, including both aspatial and spatial measures. A nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test was used to test for variation in the segregation indices across metro and nonmetro areas and spatially autoregressive models were used to examine the socioeconomic correlates of poverty segregation. Results indicate significant variation in poverty segregation patterns in metro and nonmetro counties in the US, and nonmetro counties outside of the South have significantly lower levels of poverty segregation. This research adds to the literature by exploring patterns of metro and nonmetro poverty segregation and measuring different dimensions of segregation with an explicit spatial referent across counties in the contiguous United States in an effort to note differences in how segregation works across rural and urban places.