Forbes Top Ten Most Impoverished Cities

**gazhekwe** · October-13-09, 05:30 PM

Detroit didn't make the list!

McAllen, TX
Brownsville, TX
Pine Bluff, AR
Albany, GA
Yuma, AZ
Saginaw, MI
Macon, GA
Flint, MI
Rocky Mt., NC
El Centro, CA

http://www.forbes.com/2009/10/12/mos...ies_slide.html

lilpup · October-13-09, 05:54 PM

selection criteria makes a difference - it's not just % of people below the poverty line for this list:

Factors in the ranking include per capita income, the percentage of the population earning less than half the poverty line, the percentage of food stamp recipients, the percentage of people under age 65 receiving public health care and the unemployment rate.

Those unemployment rates given for Flint and Saginaw seem low.

They're also using census data, which means metro areas. Detroit's metro area for the census includes suburbia and almost or all the way out to Ann Arbor.

**Jimaz** · October-13-09, 07:40 PM

It's interesting how many are in the Sun Belt though. Times change!

**iheartthed** · October-13-09, 07:42 PM

Two regions in Texas, two in Georgia and two in Michigan. I wonder how much of a coincidence that is...

**Ocean2026** · October-13-09, 08:34 PM

Jimaz a little knowledge is dangerous. McAllen and Brownsville, always have been near the lowest per capita income. That's reported income. There is a trade in illegal aliens and pot - that make those figures misleading. In addition the cost of living is so much lower than in the NE or Midwest. No heating bills and property tax that is a fraction of Detroit. I lived there a couple of years around 1990, watermelons were 25 cents.