COLUMBUS, Ohio – A “selective recovery” is how one analyst describes the country’s slow climb out of a recession that ended nearly four years ago.
New U.S. census data suggests not everyone is recovering equally.
The poverty rate in Franklin County in central Ohio was at 22 percent in 2012, higher than the statewide rate of 16.3 percent, which was virtually unchanged from 2011, according to the Census Bureau. Only six other states had more people in poverty.
Overall, the economy is showing signs of improvement, but the data shows, for example, that poverty is on the rise in single-mother families. More people are falling into the lowest-income group and fewer people are moving as homeownership declined for a fifth straight year.
The new census figures show that the number of Ohioans who fall below the poverty line is around 1.8 million.
Around the state, 36 percent of the people living in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County had income below the poverty level while Hamilton County and Cincinnati were just under 20 percent. Montgomery County was at 37 and Lucas County came in at 30 percent.
Ohio’s median household income in 2012 was just under $47,000, an 11 percent drop over the past dozen years.