I’ve been doing regular posts on financial topics from a geographic perspective.  These selfishly serve my own interest since I’m a geographer by trade, but my main goal is to help those who may be considering geoarbitrage as a way to optimize their finances and their life overall.

Additionally, those who RV or live the vanlife can get good data and information about different areas of the country in regards to their finances. 

To date I’ve covered topics like debt, car ownership, spending on public schools, and the affordability of houses.  This post will be covering poverty. 

The Economic Innovation Group publishes a very data-rich interactive map of what they call the “Distressed Communities Index”.  If you’re not a mapping nerd like me and don’t wish to play around with the interactive version, this shot of the entire USA gives a look at what shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise:

 

 

In a nutshell, brown is bad and blue is good.  The darker of each, the more extreme the respective condition.  They use seven metrics to measure “a single holistic measure of community economic well-being” at the zip code, city, county, and congressional district levels.

The seven component metrics of the DCI are:

1. No high school diploma: Percent of the population 25 years and older without a high school diploma or equivalent
2. Housing vacancy rate: Percent of habitable housing that is unoccupied, excluding properties that are for seasonal, recreational, or occasional use
3. Adults not working: Percent of the prime-age population (ages 25-64) not currently in work
4. Poverty rate: Percent of the population living under the poverty line
5. Median income ratio: A geography’s median income expressed as a percentage of its state’s median income
6. Change in employment: Percent change in the number of jobs from 2011 to 2015
7. Change in business establishments: Percent change in the number of business establishments from 2011 to 2015

As a data nerd I like some of the methodologies, especially #5 above.  Simply measuring the median income of a county does not tell the full story. 

A median income of say $57,000 in Connecticut on the surface looks average since the median income in America is around $59,000.  But in Connecticut it’s well below average since Connecticut’s median income is around $75,000. 

So the cost of living is no doubt much higher, and that $57k income is actually a much higher “distressed” income than it would be elsewhere. 

 

Measuring Distress

There are two main measures of distress based on the seven indicators, and you can read about their methodology here.  They list a “Distress Score”, and a “Distress Rank”. 

Basically the Distress Score is a percentage of 1 – 100, the lower the number the better.  The Distress Rank is where the area ranks of the 26,000 they ranked in America.  Again, the lower the better. 

I live outside of Washington D.C. and did a post about how the D.C. area is the richest in the country.  And I grew up just 50 miles north in Baltimore which has some of the poorest and most downtrodden areas in the country.  Well, their data looks accurate since it shows that dichotomy very clearly.  Here’s the area.

 

 

Needless to say my move to DC was only 50 miles away but I basically hyper-transported from one universe to another. 

Other noticeable trends on the US map are mostly expected, such as the large “brunch belt” of dark blue in the well-off Northeast, and the dark brown of the south. 

The poor white areas of Appalachia are some of the worst in the country and are noticeable on the map. 

I also noticed some unexpected areas of dark blue in North Dakota and Northeast Wyoming.  I’m guessing they’re the result of the natural gas boom and the great paying jobs that came along with it. 

Lastly, the suburbs of Minneapolis-St. Paul and southern Minnesota in general are very blue, and extend out way further than other big cities in America.

 

Food Insecurity

A related mapping site I found shows food insecurity in America by county.

 

Again, darker colors are bad and have a higher rating of food insecurity.  Their methodology is complex and uses food prices, poverty rates, and even self-reporting of food budget shortfalls. 

 

The Real America

The goal of this post wasn’t simply to be a Debbie-Downer by showing maps of the distribution of poverty.  But that is indeed what stands out, at least to me. 

We in the financial independence movement are more likely than not educated and relatively well-off. So it’s sometimes easy to forget how vast swaths of the country are financially distressed and suffer from food insecurity. 

Even if they have access to food, in many poor areas it’s usually fast food, or chemically injected and processed/packaged poison.  And their obesity rates and morbidity rates clearly show the results. 

Like my other geo-data posts, I hope these resources can help you if you are considering a move or if you are living the nomadic lifestyle.  Also be sure to check out my Geoarbitrage Resources Page that has tons of great tools to help you find your perfect location.