INDICATORS

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THE SOUTH IS THE OTHER AMERICA

FACING SOUTH - According to new figures released by the U.S. Census
Bureau, our country still has a poverty problem: over 38 million U.S.
Americans live below the poverty line, 13.3% of the population.

What's striking is how completely the South dominates the list of states
ravaged by poverty. Despite all those banks in Charlotte and all that
Coke in Atlanta, eleven of the 15 states with the highest poverty rates
are in the South:

State & percent living in poverty: 1 - Mississippi, 21% 2 - Louisiana,
20.2% 3 - New Mexico, 18.4% 4 - District of Columbia, 18.3% 5 - West
Virginia, 18% 6 - Texas, 17.5% 7 - Arkansas, 17.2% 8 - Alabama, 16.9% 8
- Kentucky, 16.9% 10 - Oklahoma, 16.4% 11 - Tennessee, 15.6% 11 - South
Carolina, 15.6% 13 - North Carolina, 14.9% 14 - Montana, 14.6% 15 -
Georgia, 14.5%

Or another way to look at it: every Southern state except Florida and
Virginia fall in the bottom 15.

Some say the South is losing its regional distinctiveness in today's
homogenized world. But the above statistics may point to another
conclusion: the South still has defining features, and one of the big
ones is poverty.

http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2008/01/is-south-other-america.asp


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