"Cleveland's poverty is second among big cities; gap between rich and poor grows nationally

Published: Tuesday, September 28, 2010, 10:47 AM     Updated: Tuesday, September 28, 2010, 11:03 AM

[1]Rich Exner, The Plain Dealer [1]
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Plain Dealer fileThe Census Bureau released new poverty estimates on Tuesday.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- One out of every three Clevelanders lives in poverty -- making the city one of the poorest big cities in the country -- according to new estimates released today by the Census Bureau.

The 2009 poverty rate for Cleveland was estimated at 35 percent, up from 30.5 percent in 2008.

That ranks Cleveland second in the country behind Detroit (36.4 percent) among major cities and 12th nationally among places of at least 65,000 people.  Estimates were not made available for smaller places.

Among Ohio's larger cities, Youngstown's poverty rate is 35.7 percent, followed by Cleveland, Lorain (33.7 percent), Dayton (30.9 percent), Cincinnati (25.7 percent), Akron (24.6 percent), Toledo (23.8 percent), Columbus (22.6 percent) and Parma (8.8 percent).

The highest poverty rate nationally is in the college town of College Station, Texas, at 39.7 percent.

Nationally, gap grows between rich and poor

The Associated Press reported that the income gap between the richest and poorest Americans grew last year to its widest amount on record as young adults and children in particular struggled to stay afloat in the recession.

The top-earning 20 percent of Americans -- those making more than $100,000 each year -- received 49.4 percent of all income generated in the United States, compared with the 3.4 percent earned by those below the poverty line.

At the top, the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans, who earn more than $180,000, added slightly to their annual incomes last year, census data show. Families at the $50,000 median level slipped lower.

"Income inequality is rising, and if we took into account tax data, it would be even more," said Timothy Smeeding, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who specializes in poverty. "More than other countries, we have a very unequal income distribution where compensation goes to the top in a winner-takes-all economy."

Among the 2009 findings, reported by the AP:

• The poverty gap between young and old has doubled since 2000, due partly to the strength of Social Security in helping buoy Americans 65 and over. Child poverty is now 21 percent compared with 9 percent for older Americans. In 2000, when child poverty was at 16 percent, elderly poverty stood at 10 percent.

• Safety nets are helping fill health gaps. The percentage of children covered by government-sponsored health insurance such as Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program jumped to 37 percent, or 27.6 million, from 24 percent in 2000. That helped offset steady losses in employer-sponsored insurance.