New Report Identifies Philadelphia's Poorest Demographic
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A new report shows Philadelphia making two lists, one of the largest cities in the nation and also one of the nation's poorest.
The Pew Charitable Trusts looked at the demographics of poverty over a 46-year period.
The report shows that Philadelphia's poverty rate is trending toward Hispanic, and this community is not living in traditionally poor sections.
"Philadelphia region's poor are highly concentrated in the city," said Pew researcher Octavia Howell. "More so than is the case in a lot of the other 18 regions that we looked at. While only 26 percent of the region's population lives in the city, 51 percent of the region's poor live here."
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Howell says Hispanics have the highest rate of poverty compared to other racial and ethnic groups at almost 38 percent, which translates to almost 85,000 people.
The research also shows that about 400,000 residents, including 37 percent of the city's children, are living below the federal poverty level of just over $19,000 a year.
That's for one adult and two children, and half of that number are in deep poverty, living on about $9,700 a year.