New data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that while Wisconsin’s overall poverty rate more or less remained the same between 2013 to 2014, La Crosse County in particular saw a steep decline in poverty.
The poverty threshold for a family of four is roughly $24,000. According to new data from the American Community Survey, the percentage of Wisconsin residents living under that threshold has remained flat at 13 percent.
In La Crosse County, however, rates have dropped from 9.1 percent of families living under the threshold in 2013 to 4.4 percent in 2014. There was also a decline in families with children living under the threshold, from 16.8 to 7.7 percent.
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Grace Jones is the executive director of Couleecap, a southwest Wisconsin nonprofit that works with low-income people. She noted that the decline in poverty levels correlates with a decline in La Crosse’s unemployment rate, which dropped from 6.4 percent to 3.7 percent between January 2013 and December 2014.
“Families were able to get back to work, and that may have been a large factor in reducing the number of families and children in poverty in La Crosse County,” said Jones.
The ACS is an annual survey that collects data on a wide range of information ranging from income to housing status. It provides data on communities with a population greater than 65,000 people.
Jones noted that unlike the census, the ACS surveys a relatively small sample of the population. “The numbers can change a lot year to year,” she said.
Since 2009, the percentage of La Crosse families living below the poverty level has fluctuated between 5 and 17 percent. The city has historically ranked only second to Milwaukee in its poverty rate among the state’s largest cities.
According to the ACS, Washington, Sheboygan and Marathon counties also saw significant declines in the percentage of families with children living under the poverty level.
Check out the map below for a county-by-county breakdown of family poverty rates in Wisconsin:
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