Poverty rate increases in Twin Counties

from The Rocky Mountain Telegram

By Mike Hixenbaugh
Rocky Mount Telegram

Edgecombe County is the sixth most impoverished county in North Carolina, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

As of 2005, roughly 26 percent of Edgecombe County residents – 13,637 in total – lived in poverty, the report said. That's up 7 percent from 2000, when fewer than 11,000 Edgecombe County residents were below the poverty line.

In Nash County, 16.7 percent of all residents – 14,845 in total – lived in poverty in 2005, the report said. That, too, is up from 2000, when only 12 percent of Nash County residents lived below the poverty marker.

Only Robeson, Halifax, Scotland, Tyrrell and Columbus counties had higher poverty rates than Edgecombe County.

When several Edgecombe County officials were informed of the high poverty marks Thursday, most suggested the aftermath of Hurricane Floyd's 1999 floodwaters was at least partially to blame. Having not studied the report, however, none were willing to make an official statement.

It seems the growth of the lower class throughout the Twin Counties is most visible in public schools. Wednesday's census report showed a significant spike in the number of underprivileged children who attended Nash-Rocky Mount and Edgecombe County public schools between 2004 and 2005.

In 2004, about 21 percent of students enrolled in Edgecombe County schools lived below the poverty line. That number grew to nearly 30 percent by 2005. The figure went from 20.5 percent to more than 26 percent in Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools between 2004 and 2005, the report said.

Although three years old, the census numbers represent the most accurate available picture of poverty in North Carolina, U.S. Census officials said in a written statement.

The study defined the poverty threshold based on average cost of living estimates. The poverty line for a family of three, according to the study, was an annual income of $15,835.

Edgecombe and Nash counties weren't the only areas to see growing poverty rates since 2000.

About 15 percent of all North Carolina residents lived below the poverty line in 2005, the updated report said. That figure was less than 12 percent in 2000.

Edgecombe County had one of the lower median household incomes in the state at $29,152, the report said. The median household income in Nash County was $38,232.

Wake County boasted the highest median household income in North Carolina at nearly $58,000. The statewide median income was $40,781.