What Else Could Push Up the Poverty Rate?
If individuals who are above or below the poverty line move to new residences, it can have profound effects on poverty rates, if the shifts in residence alter the population of the city. That is what may have happened in Cleveland. According to the American Community Survey’s figures, Cleveland’s population has declined 11.5 percent, while the total number of poor residents has increased by about 20,000 since 2000 (figure 3). Meanwhile, the number of nonpoor people fell 21 percent (74,000) in the city and rose just slightly in the rest of the MSA (1 percent). The result of this combination is a poverty rate that rises quite a bit in the city and much less so in the rest of the MSA.
