I found it interesting to find that the poorest counties in the United States are not in Mississippi or Louisiana but out on the Great Plains. http://www.economist.com/World/na/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5280905
Having spent quite some time driving through the Great Plains in recent weeks, I'm not even remotely surprised. The number of towns that are mostly dead is staggering. I don't know the reasons for most of it - sometimes it's the interstate that comes through and so the lack of traffic kills the town. Sometimes mines or other industry close. I dunno. It's very bleak in places.
I can't believe Southern WV has no counties on this list. If Boone and McDowell counties are actually better off than these places then there must simply be nothing there. I thought McDowell county was the poorerst place on earth.
The western Great Plains, overall, is declining in population. Many counties in western Nebraska and the Dakotas are so depopulated that there is sometimes serious talk about closing the counties down--there aren't enough taxpayers to keep the county afloat. There just isn't much left in many of those places. Although I'm from eastern Nebraska, I've always had a soft spot for the Sandhills and the Panhandle areas. But life isn't so good for a lot of people in that part of my home state.
Surprising, and then again, not. I've traveled throughout New Mexico and Western Colorado. You have enclaves of wealth surrounded by some pretty intense poverty. So, when are the Great Plains going to be (re-) populated with Lions and Tigers?
BTW, I'm reading 1491. I just got to the part where the Indians used to burn the prarie every year. Fascinating read.
Sometime after the Ogallala Aquifer runs dry. Then the humans will step aside and whatever animals want the area will have the run of the place.
Maybe they couldn't find Mingo on the map. Plus, remember that there are some rich people down there too.
Is the poorest county in the USA pronounced Meager? Marr? Ironic either way. http://trac.syr.edu/tracirs/findings/aboutTP/tables/topaveagi03.html 50 richest counties. NJ has 3 of top 5, 6 of top 50.
Interesting list. I wonder if they could issue a revised list of the richest counties by median income, rather than average mean income. Some of the counties would do well either way. But New York County (Manhattan) has an obvious mix of extreme wealth and grinding poverty. It would not fair as well as some of the more uniformly affluent suburban communities if median income were used.
Whoo, we're number 1-5 I believe that because Indian reservations are fairly independant they aren't counted as part of a county in this list. The Crow reservation is to the Southeast of Billings and the Blackfeet are to the West of county #9. Basically Billings is an economic blackhole sucking in all the business and people from Eastern and central Montana and North central Wyoming. Small family farming will not exist for much longer. Today around 75% of government subsidies go to large and corporate farms. Also none of these counties are near any desireable tourist destinations. If you look at Western counties you will find that those with a high amount of public forest land are the ones experiencing the highest amount of growth. Montana as a whole is growing because of this but it is centerened in the beautiful mountain filed West and Billings. If you go to Walmart or another big box store on the weekend close to a highway or interstate you will find thousands of cars from other counties, easy to tell with Montana's old liscense plate system. while many see us as a solid red state Democrats won 4/5 statewide seats up for election last year and most of both houses thanks to the ineptitude of republicans and their economy.
Reservations: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0778676.html That might be coal mining territory to the Northwest of Billings.
That's certainly happening in Butte where the degregulation of the power industry meant that industry faced hyperexpansion of energy prices. They largely shut down the copper mining there because the energy prices were too much.
http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/saipe/saipe.cgi#SA91 New York County/ManhattanBorough median $43,573, far less than the $82,308 average. I saw an article on this, can't remember where. NY,NY has great disparities of income by zip code or census tract, some of the nation's highest & lowest in relatively close proximity to each other. Forbes lists house prices by Zip code: http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/2005/04/22/cx_sc_0426homep.html Manhattan has 11 of the most expensive 150 Zips. http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/2005/04/22/cx_sc_0426homez.html Some other links: http://wealth.mongabay.com/tables/100_wealthiest_zip_codes-1000.html http://wealth.mongabay.com/tables/100_wealthiest_zip_codes.html http://www.uwec.edu/geography/ivogeler/w188/thewealthyUSA/thewealthyUSA.htm http://www.uwec.edu/geography/ivogeler/w188/thewealthyUSA/thewealthyUSA-East Coast.htm http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1377315/posts
Yeah, I'm not sure how accurate this is. According to the US Census website... Meagher County, Montana Code: Median household income, 1999: $29,375 Per capita money income, 1999: $15,019 Persons below poverty, percent, 1999: 18.9% McDowell County, West Virginia Code: Median household income, 1999: $16,931 Per capita money income, 1999: $10,174 Persons below poverty, percent, 1999: 37.7% I know the article is using different, more up-to-date, data but I know that McDowell County hasn't changed that much since 1999. I would say it's definitely "poorer".
There has been some signs of life in the coal fields, but i thought that was mainly Wyoming and parts of Boone. The really sad thing is that there was once a ton of money in the area. McDowell had a population of over 100K. Have you seen Welch in the last 5 years or so? It looks like one of the small towns near Chernobyl, desolate and abandoned.