Poverty in the Washington region’s suburbs increased at a faster rate than in the city during the recession, following a national trend that indicates suburbs have far more recovering to do than urban centers, a new study shows. Meanwhile the gap between the unemployment rate in the suburbs and the cities they serve has narrowed as greater numbers of suburban residents have lost jobs than in past recessions.
| Recession hit D.C. suburbs harder than city | ||
| Study looks at changes from 2007 to 2010 | ||
| Growth in number | Growth in number | |
| of unemployed | on food stamps | |
| D.C. urban core* | 75.1% | 50.0% |
| Montgomery County | 106.2% | 93.8% |
| Prince George’s County | 99.1% | 131.5% |
| Fairfax County | 104.4% | 89.4% |
| Loudoun County | 99.9% | 105.5% |
| Prince William County | 108.6 | 101.1% |
| *District, Alexandria, Arlington County | ||
| Source: Brookings Institution | ||
“Our traditional conception of poverty has been that we see [that] focused in urban areas, but more and more we see this as a regional issue,” said Elizabeth Kneebone, a Brookings Institution fellow who consulted on the report.
Although Kneebone said the Washington region’s suburbs fared comparatively better than many others across the country, the number of unemployed still increased at a greater rate than in urban areas. The increase, combined with the greater poverty numbers, are largely a result of the growing immigrant population in D.C.’s suburbs.
“Suburbs are home to an increasingly larger share of the low-income population,” Kneebone said.
From 2007 to 2010, the number of unemployed residents more than doubled in Montgomery, Frederick, Charles and Calvert counties in Maryland and in Clarke, Fairfax, Prince William and Stafford counties and Manassas in Virginia.
All suburbs, which includes hard-hit Jefferson County, W.Va., averaged a 104 percent increase in the number of unemployed residents. The District, Arlington County and Alexandria combined for an average 75 percent increase.
While the unemployment rate in urban areas remains higher on average, the damage in the suburbs has narrowed the gap, largely because of the professions hit by this recession.
“Real estate, construction, the housing market — those tend to be more suburban industries and those were the hardest hit,” Kneebone said.
The Washington region’s food stamp enrollment increased by more than the rest of the country in the past three years. According to the report, the number of people living in the immediate suburbs who were on food stamps more than doubled in that period.
