More Info on Medina County Cities and Poverty

Earlier today we posted an entry on a report from the United States Census Bureau that consists of estimates of certain data for cities over 20,000. In that entry we noted that the Cleveland.com reported that according to this data the percentage of residents of Medina City living in poverty sometime during the last 12 months doubled from the 2000 census to this mid-decade estimate.

We got curious about the other two cities in Medina County, Brunswick and Wadsworth. We went to the Cleveland.com website and used this tool it has to compare cities in Northeast Ohio. According to this tool, the Census Bureau data for Brunswick shows that 5.2% of its population was estimated to have been living in poverty during the last 12 months. The figure for Wadsworth was 5.4%. The figure for Medina, as reported earlier, was 10.4%.

The tool, by the way, can be used for any city in the United States. You can access the tool here.

Census Bureau Report Shows Doubling of Medina Residents Living in Poverty

The United States Census Bureau has released new estimates regarding the population of cities over 20,000. Previously, the Census Bureau only released data between census counts for cities over 65,000. Smaller cities had to wait until a new census was done and then go back and compare the data for the new census with the data from the census conducted 10 years before.

According to a Cleveland.com article on this change, the data released on December 8, 2008, shows that the city of Medina has experienced an increase in the number of residents living in poverty. This is from the article:

And urban ills have seeped into the city of Medina, the epicenter of the region's fastest-growing county. More than 10 percent of families in the city of 25,000 are living in poverty, compared with 5 percent in 2000, the bureau reports.

It must be kept in mind that this data represents an estimate, based on data collected by the Census Bureau. This data does show, however, that Medina City officials need to start planning on how city services will be affected by this apparent increase in the number of poor residents.

States Ranking by Percentage in Poverty & the 2008 Election

Below is the ranking of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia by the percentage of their population living in poverty. The ranking was done by the United States Census Bureau. If you look at the top ten states, two of them went for Obama and the other eight went for McCain. Conversely if you look at the bottom ten, you will find that nine of those states went for Obama, while only one went for McCain. Ohio, by the way, ranks 21, with 13.3% of its population living in poverty.

1
Mississippi
21.1
2
District of Columbia
19.6
3
Louisiana
19
4
New Mexico
18.5
5
Arkansas
17.3
5
West Virginia
17.3
7
Kentucky
17
7
Oklahoma
17
9
Texas
16.9
10
Alabama
16.6
11
Tennessee
16.2
12
South Carolina
15.7
13
Georgia
14.7
13
North Carolina
14.7
15
Arizona
14.2
15
New York
14.2
17
Missouri
13.6
17
Montana
13.6
17
South Dakota
13.6
20
Michigan
13.5
United States
13.3
21
Ohio
13.3
21
Oregon
13.3
23
California
13.1
24
Maine
12.9
25
Indiana
12.7
26
Florida
12.6
26
Idaho
12.6
28
Kansas
12.4
29
Illinois
12.3
30
Pennsylvania
12.1
31
Colorado
12
32
Washington
11.8
33
Nebraska
11.5
34
North Dakota
11.4
35
Delaware
11.1
35
Rhode Island
11.1
37
Iowa
11
37
Wisconsin
11
39
Alaska
10.9
40
Utah
10.6
41
Nevada
10.3
41
Vermont
10.3
43
Massachusetts
9.9
44
Minnesota
9.8
45
Virginia
9.6
46
Wyoming
9.4
47
Hawaii
9.3
48
New Jersey
8.7
49
Connecticut
8.3
50
New Hampshire
8
51
Maryland
7.8