Follow-up on Alabama poverty rates

Alabama's poverty rate - which ranks 7th highest in the nation according to the latest U.S. Census figures - has inspired numerous guilt-ridden editorials and political ads through the years. It seems to be cited most often by those individuals and groups with a strong attraction to tax increases and bigger government.

Well, as it turns out, that #7 ranking isn't entirely accurate. In a post last Thursday, I linked to this New York Times article about a recent study which shows that the U.S. Census Bureau's state-by-state rankings of poverty rates can be quite misleading, in that they don't account for regional variations in housing costs and other costs of living. According to the Times report:

SAN FRANCISCO, May 10 — A new report that adjusts the poverty line to reflect housing costs says New York, California and Washington, D.C., have the highest percentage of residents living in poverty, surpassing traditionally impoverished regions like the Deep South

Et cetera, et cetera. Unfortunately, the article didn't say how Alabama fared...so I tried to find out. I e-mailed the PPIC's Deborah Reed, the author of the study, and she kindly responded today. Here's what she said:

By the official measure, poverty in Alabama in the 2002-2004 period was 15.5% and Alabama ranked 8th (7th if you don't count D.C.). By our housing-cost-adjusted measure, poverty was 12.1% and Alabama ranked 15th (14th without DC).

We don't plan to publish the state statistics, but researchers at the Census Bureau contacted me last Friday to let me know about this working paper: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/povmeas/papers/geopaper.pdf

So, when housing costs are taken into account, Alabama's poverty rate falls from 7th highest in the nation to 14th. Still not great - assuming that wealth and prosperity are suitable measures of "greatness" - but informative nonetheless.