Persistent poverty counties are concentrated in the Southeast, Southwest, and Appalachia. As would be expected, income levels in poverty counties were considerably lower than in other counties. Unemployment rates in these counties were the highest of the six types examined in this report. The average unemployment rate in 1990 was 8.5 percent, considerably above the 6.6-percent nonmetro average. It is important to note, however, that poverty is not simply a problem of unemployment.
Unemployment is only part of the problem.
In fact, the Nation's working poor are more likely to live in rural areas then urban. Poverty counties tend to have somewhat smaller and less urbanized populations than do other county types. Over half of the counties were not adjacent to a metro area, suggesting limited access for residents to jobs in urban centers, especially since public transportation service is generally lacking and low incomes limit the possibility of private transportation. Poverty counties have disproportionate numbers of people with characteristics that make them prone to economic disadvantage. On average, these counties have large numbers of people without a high school education putting them at risk of being unprepared to participate in the economy and people living in female-headed households.