New data from the U.S. Census Bureau finds that Buffalo and Rochester have been ranked in the top four of U.S. cities with the worst poverty. Buffalo was ranked number four on the Census Bureau’s list of cities with the worst poverty with Rochester coming in at number three.
The figures show that more than 26 percent of the families in Buffalo are living in poverty, and more than 27 percent of families are living in poverty in Rochester.
Detroit was ranked number one, followed by Cleveland. The Bureau reports that nearly half of Buffalo’s families are headed by married couples and more than 10 percent of them are living in poverty. The Census Bureau defines a family as any household whose members are related by blood or marriage. It can consist of a family with or without kids, as well as a single parent with children.
The report also finds that there are nearly as many families headed by single mothers as married couples, but single mothers are much more likely to be poor, at a rate of 42 percent. The poverty rate varies for married couples depending on the number of children in the household. Only 4.6 percent of couples with no children are classified as poor, while couples with 5 or more children came in at a 61 percent poverty rate in the city.
The figures were analyzed by Business First. They were collected from the year 2012 and taken from the Census Bureau’s five-year American Community Survey.