Poverty declines in Maryland

from The Examiner

Stephen Janis, The Examiner

BALTIMORE -

Fewer Maryland residents lived in poverty while household income across the state inched up, according to the latest estimates released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

An estimated 453,850 Maryland residents lived at or below the federal poverty line in 2005 — 8.3 percent of all state residents — down from 506,265 in 2004. That’s an 11 percent decline year over year.

The federal poverty threshold was $19,350 for a family of four in 2005.
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The report was part of a comprehensive survey of poverty in the United States required by the No Child Left Behind Act, a federal law that ties federal funding to school test scores.

The report also included data on household incomes nationwide.

The median household income in Maryland rose from $57,019 in 2004 to $61,546 in 2005 — a 4 percent gain.

Maryland continues to outpace the nation in median incomes and the number of residents living in poverty.

Nationwide, the median household income was $44,100 in 2005 — with 12.7 percent of the U.S. population living in poverty.

Howard, Carroll, Anne Arundel, Harford and Baltimore counties all showed decreases in impoverished residents, with Baltimore County experiencing nearly a 20 percent drop in the number of people below the federal poverty line.

But in Baltimore City, despite a slight increase in median household income from $29,792 in 2004 to $32,453 in 2005, the number of people living in poverty edged up slightly to 134,060 from 131,827 the previous year. More than 30 percent of the city’s children live at or below the poverty level, the largest percentage of impoverished children in any jurisdiction in the state.

“The increase in income is a good thing. It shows there is a lot of opportunity in Baltimore, we are attracting more jobs into the city,” said Sterling Clifford, spokesman for Mayor Sheila Dixon.

Nevertheless, “not everyone has the same access to those opportunities, and that is what the mayor is committed to fixing.”

INSIDE THE CENSUS

Number of residents living in poverty by jurisdiction in 2005

Baltimore City 134,060 22.2 percent

Baltimore County 52,033 6.8 percent

Harford County 13,470 5.7 percent

Anne Arundel County 26,604 5.4 percent

Howard County 10,251 3.9 percent

Carroll County 6,128 3.7 percent

Source: U.S. Census Bureau