Race and the micro-scale spatial concentration of poverty

Abstract

This paper uses block-group data from the US decennial censuses to document changes in concentrated poverty. It provides several substantive and methodological lessons. First, the majority of poor sub-county areas were located (and hidden) in low poverty counties. Second, the 1990s brought large declines in the share of high-poverty (sub-county) areas and the share of people, including poor people, who lived in them. Third, poor minorities—both in metro and non-metro areas—are highly ghettoized in high-poverty neighbourhoods and are highly segregated from whites and the nonpoor population. Discussions of concentrated poverty cannot be uncoupled from minority residence patterns.