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Poverty declines, but income inequality grows in Tampa-St. Pete

Margie Manning

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Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

The gap between the wealthiest and poorest households in the Tampa-St. Petersburg Clearwater metropolitan area has swelled in the past nine years, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The growing disparity is reflective of a national trend, Census Bureau data shows, and comes even as poverty is decreasing and household incomes are rising.

“The Gini index [a summary measure of income inequality] was significantly higher in 2018 than 2017 for the United States and nine states,” the American Community Survey Household Income 2018 report said. “The Gini index varies from 0 to 1, with a 0 indicating perfect equality, where there is equal distribution of income. A Gini index of 1 indicates perfect inequality, where one household has all the income.”

While there were fluctuations from year to year, the index generally has climbed locally, statewide and nationally between 2010, the first year for which information was provided, and 2018.

Florida is among the states with the highest level of income inequality.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Rising income inequality “is a recipe for a politically and socially divided nation,” Kim Weeden, director of the Cornell University Center for the Study of Inequality, told CBS News.

Wealth, which includes assets such as stock holdings and the value of a home, is even more uneven than income, Weeden said.

In the Tampa-St. Pete area, the median household income grew from $53,524 in 2017 to $54,912 in 2018, a 2.6 percent increase.

Among the 25 most populous metro areas in the U.S., Tampa-St. Pete had the smallest median household income in 2018.

Florida’s median household income in 2018 was $55,462, up 2.8 percent from $53,945 in 2017. The median household income in the U.S. was $61,937 last year, a 0.8 percent increase from $61,423 in 2017.

The share of the U.S. population with incomes below the poverty level dropped between 2017 and 2018 for the fifth consecutive year, the Census Bureau said.  In 2018, 13.1 percent of the U.S. population had income below the poverty level, compared to 13.4 percent in 2017.

In the Tampa-St. Pete area, the percentage of people in poverty dipped from about 14 percent in 2017 to 13.4 percent in 2018.

Poverty rates are vital indicators when federal and state governments are allocating funds to communities, and in determining eligibility for assistance programs

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1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Avatar

    Bill Vogel

    September 30, 2019at3:37 pm

    Graduate from HS
    Get a job
    Don’t get pregnant before you get married
    97% chance of not being in poverty

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