The East-West Gateway Map of the Month for January illustrates the percentage of individuals in Census tracts that fall below the designated poverty threshold, based on their family size and income. In 2022, 10.43 percent of individuals in the region were living in poverty, which was lower than the national poverty rate of 12.53 percent. Most tracts in the region have less than 10 percent of their population living in poverty; however, the dark blue color on the map indicates where 40 percent or more of the population lives in poverty, referred to as areas of concentrated poverty. There are 20 such tracts in the region with 23,710 people living in poverty.
The official poverty measure, used since the 1960s, determines poverty status by comparing pretax monetary income against a set of 48 poverty thresholds, which are adjusted based on family composition. For instance, a family of four, including two children under the age of 18, with an income of less than $29,678 annually, would be classified as living in poverty. These thresholds primarily are used as a statistical benchmark rather than a comprehensive description of what individuals and families require for a decent standard of living.
Two counties within the EWG region surpassed the national rate: the city of St. Louis (20.18 percent) and St. Clair (13.8 percent). Other counties in the region had rates below the national average: Madison (12.01 percent), St. Louis (9.62 percent), Jefferson (8.27 percent), Franklin (8.09 percent), St. Charles (4.52 percent), and Monroe (4.29 percent).
Read more about concentrated poverty in the St. Louis region in this month’s Where We Stand Newsletter.For more detailed information on how the Census Bureau measures population poverty, please refer to this link:
https://www.census.gov/topics/income-poverty/poverty/guidance/poverty-measures.html