Poorest midsize U.S. city?
Youngstown’s position worsened this year, the Census Bureau said.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown has the dubious distinction of having one of — if not the — lowest median household incomes among midsize cities in the country, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
The estimates for 2006, released Tuesday by the bureau, lists Youngstown with the lowest median income in the nation among cities with populations between 65,000 and 249,999. The city’s median income is $21,850, according to census data.
But the estimates come with very large margins of error. For example, Youngstown’s margin of error is $2,058, or 9.4 percent.
Based on margins of error, Youngstown could be seventh on the list.
The 2005 report had Youngstown’s median income at $26,516, with a margin of error of about $4,500, said Ed Welniak, chief of the bureau’s income surveys branch. That wasn’t good enough for the 2005 top 10, but it was close, he said.
Welniak said the bureau doesn’t have an explanation for Youngstown’s huge drop in median income from 2005 to 2006.
Data for the report is based on samplings of areas with errors possibly occurring from how respondents interpret questions and the willingness of people to accurately answer questions, among other issues, according to the bureau.
The national median household income for 2006 was $48,451, more than double Youngstown’s estimate. Ohio’s median household income last year was $44,532.
County figures
The bureau released median household incomes for cities with populations of at least 65,000, and counties.
Mahoning County’s median household income is $38,393 with a $1,919 margin of error. Not including the margin of error, Mahoning is the ninth lowest of Ohio’s 88 counties in terms of median household income, obviously dragged down by Youngstown’s $21,850 figure.
“We concentrate poverty in Youngstown by pricing out poverty in the suburbs,” said Thomas Finnerty, associate director of Youngstown State University’s Center for Urban and Regional Studies.
People go to cities where “it’s affordable to be poor” — and for this economically troubled region that location is Youngstown, he said.
But it’s quite likely that poverty is bleeding into the suburbs surrounding Youngstown, Finnerty said.
“It isn’t stopping at the city limits,” he said. “Those who’ve escaped [to the suburbs] will be the next victims.”
Attempts to reach Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams on Tuesday were unsuccessful.
Columbiana, Trumbull
While Mahoning’s median income is the state’s ninth-lowest, it’s better than Columbiana County, which has a median income of $37,791 with a $1,795 margin of error. Columbiana has the eighth-lowest median household income in the state.
Trumbull County’s income is $42,344 with a $2,324 margin of error; the 16th lowest in Ohio.
Census estimates state Youngstown last year had 30.5 percent of its population below the poverty level, the most among Ohio cities with at least 65,000 residents. The state’s population below the poverty level in 2006 was 13.3 percent. Nationwide, 12.3 percent of Americans lived in poverty last year.
Census estimates show Youngstown led the state in the percentage of those under the age of 18 living in poverty last year. The Youngstown 2006 figure was 48.9 percent compared with 18.7 percent for the state.
skolnick@vindy.com