Wisconsin’s poverty rate is the highest it has been in three decades, according to a recent study from UW-Madison’s Applied Population Laboratory.
The study retrieved data from 2005-’09 and 2010-’14 and demonstrated that poverty levels are the highest they have been since 1984. Between 2005 and 2009, the number of impoverished residents rose from 605,000 to 738,000.
The analysis showed that Wisconsin has the 11th fastest-rising child poverty rate as well, rising 14.6 percent between 2005 and 2009 with almost one in five Wisconsin children living in poverty.
Racial disparities within the state have an increasing poverty gap as well, with 39 percent of blacks and 28 percent of Latinos in poverty, compared to 11 percent for whites. Wisconsin now ranks 49th out of the 50 states in the poverty gap between blacks and whites, according to the study.
The study also found overall increases in poverty regardless of the residents’ employment status and education level.
“The data tell us that poverty has been getting worse in Wisconsin,” said Malia Jones, an assistant scientist and social epidemiologist at the APL. “Poverty went up significantly, even during a time when the nation’s economy was improving.”
