Ohio poverty rate was 8.7% in 2021, according to new study
Ohio’s poverty rate was 8.7 percent in 2021, according to a recent study by Columbus-based firm Scioto Analysis.
The Ohio Poverty Measure study showed the state’s poverty was a bit higher than the 8.1 percent poverty rate in 2021 listed by the U.S. Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure.
Scioto Analysis used data from The American Community Survey and the Current Population Survey to conduct their study for the Ohio Poverty Measure. They used the same methodology as the California Poverty Measure, New York City Poverty Measure, Oregon Poverty Measure and Wisconsin Poverty Measure.
This is the second Ohio Poverty Measure the Scioto Analysis has conducted — the first one was released in 2021 and showed 9.7 percent of Ohioans were in poverty in 2018.
Ohioans living in urban areas and Appalachian communities encounter poverty at higher rates while people living in suburbs around Ohio’s largest cities experienced poverty at significantly lower rates, according to the new study.
“An interesting trend in Ohio that we see a lot is the difference between Southeast and Northwest Ohio,” said Rob Moore, the principal for Scioto Analysis. “Both are pretty rural parts of the state, but with very different trajectories.”
Northwest Ohio has some of the lowest poverty rates in the state while the Appalachian counties bordering West Virginia have the highest poverty rates outside of urban areas, according to the study.
Lowest poverty rate:
Cuyahoga County (South) — 5.0 percent
Auglaize, Mercer, and Van Wert Counties — 5.2 percent
Warren County (East) — 5.4 percent
Summit County (North and Northwest) — 5.7 percent
Delaware County — 5.8 percent.
Highest poverty rate:
Toledo City (East) — 15.7 percent
Columbus City (Central) — 15.6 percent
Columbus City (Northeast) — 15.5 percent
Columbus City (West) — 15.2 percent
Cleveland City (East) — 14.8 percent.
Hispanic Ohioans experienced the highest rates of poverty with about 15 percent, followed by 14 percent of Black Ohioans — compared to 8 percent of white Ohioans.
Social Security lifted more than 260,000 Ohioans out of poverty in 2021 and more than 2 percent of Ohioans do not experience poverty due to Social Security, according to the study.
“This is an expected result, given that in the Census Bureau’s 2021 Poverty in the United States report, Social Security was by far the largest anti-poverty program in the country,” according to the study.
Child poverty in Ohio was nearly 8 percent — a bit higher than both senior and working age poverty, according to the study.
“This is despite the fact that during 2021, the federal Child Tax Credit was expanded as a result of the American Rescue Plan act,” according to the study. “Since the expiration of the Child Tax Credit expansion in 2022, child poverty has doubled, making this disparity even more dramatic.”
Megan Henry is a reporter for the Ohio Capital Journal and has spent the past five years reporting in Ohio on various topics including education, healthcare, business and crime. She previously worked at The Columbus Dispatch, part of the USA Today Network. Follow OCJ Reporter Megan Henry on X.
Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
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