Poverty Rates in Kentucky
More Rural Communities are Slipping into Severe Poverty
On the national scale, Kentucky has the 4th highest poverty rate at 16.3% of its population. This is just slightly better than the poverty rate of New Mexico, and just slightly worse than the poverty rates of Texas and West Virginia.
Where the Worst Poverty in Kentucky Occurs
With a poverty rate as high as 16.3%, one would think that it would be hard to reach critical poverty levels 50% or more above such a high state average. However, the poverty rates do reach these high levels in quite a number of places.
The poverty rates reach critical levels in 21 counties across Kentucky. In all of these counties except for one (Floyd County), the population density is below the average population density for the state. This shows that these are mostly rural counties.
The counties that have critical poverty rates (50% above the state average) are the following:
- Bell (28.8%)
- Breathitt (29.5%)
- Clay (34.3%)
- Elliot (25.3%)
- Floyd (26.8%)
- Harlan (29.3%)
- Jackson (25.2%)
- Knott (27.0%)
- Knox (29.1%)
- Lawrence (24.8%)
- Lee (29.8%)
- Leslie (28.6%)
- Lewis (26.9%)
- McCreary (30.1%)
- Magoffin (29.9%)
- Martin (30.5%)
- Morgan (27.0%)
- Owsley (35.5%)
- Perry (26.0%)
- Whitley (25.3%)
- Wolfe (29.4%)
This means that one out of every four people, or in some counties, one out of every three people, is living in poverty.
A critical level of poverty also occurs in one major city of Kentucky. This city is Richmond, and it has a poverty rate of 25.0%.
Why the Worst Poverty in Kentucky Exists
Because the poverty rates are so much higher than the state average in so many counties in a specific region of Kentucky, this shows that the poverty is extremely isolated.
When the poverty becomes extremely isolated like this, a negative stigma can start to be associated with the area.
Negative stigma can make the poverty in areas like this even worse, because it becomes an unattractive place for expanding businesses, teachers, and health care professionals. This leads to a shortage of jobs, low quality education, and low quality health care, which all make the problem of poverty even more severe in the area.
Aside from the negative stigma and the clear isolation of these counties in Kentucky there is the fact that they are mostly rural areas.
Rural areas have less access to basic utilities and services. In some of these rural areas of Kentucky it is harder to access electricity, water, and sewage systems than it is for people living in urban areas.
Due to low quality road maintenance in some of these areas it can also be much more difficult to reach a hospital or school.
All of this isolation also means that the residents of rural, southeastern Kentucky have less of a political voice as well.
All of this aside, it is important to keep in mind that the reasons for poverty are as unique as the individuals who live through it. Though finding trends in a specific area is important, no generalization can account for everyone.
What is Being Done about Poverty in Kentucky
One great organization working to reduce poverty in rural Kentucky is Community Action Kentucky (CAK).
Community Action Kentucky helps by providing valuable information and data concerning poverty in low-income areas of Kentucky. They also set up multiple local offices which people living in poverty in Kentucky may call in order to receive help.
Other organizations working to reduce poverty in rural Kentucky are the Kentucky Primary Care Association, the Kentucky Rural Health Association, the University of Kentucky Center of Excellence in Rural Health, and the USDA Rural Development.
References:
United States Census Bureau
Community Action Kentucky
