Nevada’s poverty rate rises slightly

Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2000 | 10:39 a.m.

Nevada's poverty rate rose slightly to 11.3 percent in 1999 from 10.6 percent in 1998, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

While Nevada's poverty rate grew, the nation's rate dropped from 12.7 percent in 1998 to 11.8 percent in 1999 the lowest level since 1979.

Although the yearly estimate rose from 1998 to 1999, the bureau's two-year poverty averages for 1998-1999 and 1997-1998 remained essentially stable at 10.9 percent and 10.8 percent of the population.

Mary Riddle, a UNLV assistant economics professor, said the one-year dip in Nevada is likely due to statistical "turbulence" from large numbers of people moving in and out of the state.

Keith Schwer, director of the UNLV Center for Business and Economic Research, agreed that there is a lot of variability to the poverty numbers, but the numbers are important.

"Those are always important numbers ..." he said. "We're always concerned about the lower income levels because that's a vulnerable group of our population ... The total cost to our society increases as those numbers go up."

While the economy of Southern Nevada has boomed, there are pockets of depressed economies in the state, particularly in rural areas that depend on dwindling mining income, Schwer said.

But the one-year blip is far from a trend, Schwer said.

"I wouldn't draw any sweeping, striking generalizations at this point," he said.

The bureau statistic means that about 200,000 Nevadans are below the official poverty level. The bureau's poverty threshold for a family of four in 1999 was $17,029 in annual income; for a family of three, it was $13,290.

But while the number of Nevadans living in poverty inched up over the last year, the median, or average, household income in the state rose to $42,680 per year, up over $1,000 from the 1998 level.

The national median household income reached $40,816, the highest level ever recorded by the bureau since it began tracking the figure in 1967.

"Every racial and ethnic group experienced a drop in both the number of poor and the percent in poverty, as did children, the elderly and people ages 25 to 44," said Daniel Weinberg, chief of the Census Bureau's Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division. "This was the fifth consecutive year that households experienced a real annual increase in income."

According to the poverty report, 2.2 million fewer people were poor in 1999 than in 1998, 32.3 million versus 34.5 million.

The rate for blacks, 23.6 percent, was the lowest ever measured by the Census Bureau.

In 1999 the poverty rate among Hispanics was 22.8 percent, which statistically equaled its measured low last reached in 1979. The poverty rate for Asians and Pacific Islanders decreased to 10.7 percent in 1999, from 12.5 percent in 1998, also equaling its lowest measured value.

A three-year average (1997-1999) poverty rate for American Indian and Alaska Natives was 25.9 percent, with an estimated 700,000 living in poverty. This is the first time that the Census Bureau has shown poverty data for Indian and Alaska Native populations.

Seven states -- Arizona, Arkansas, California, New York, South Dakota, Utah and Virginia, plus the District of Columbia -- showed decreases in their poverty rates.

Among the 50 states, the highest poverty rate for the previous three years was in New Mexico, where almost 21 percent of households are below the poverty line. The next highest was in Louisiana, at 18.2 percent.

The lowest poverty rate in the country over the last three years was Maryland, at 7.6 percent.

Maryland also had the highest median income in the country last year, at $52,310. The lowest was for Arkansas, at $29,762.

The 1999 median income level for the nation's households rose, in real terms, by 2.7 percent, from $39,744 in 1998 to $40,816.

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