More than 50 million Americans are still plagued by poverty, joblessness and a state of recession, according to a new study.
A study from the Economic Innovation Group profiled how more than 25,000 ZIP codes accounting for 99 percent of the United States’ population have fared in the aftermath of the Great Recession. It found the country’s most prosperous ZIP codes have flourished and the most distressed ones have continued to struggle, thus widening the gap even more between the two.
The study deems one-fifth of U.S. ZIP codes with the highest distressed scores — scores from 80 to 100 — as distressed communities. In these communities, 27 percent of individuals on average live in poverty, while 55 percent of adults living there are not working.
The most distressed cities in America, in order, are:
- Camden, N.J.
- Cleveland
- Gary, Ind.
- Youngstown, Ohio
- Hartford, Conn.
- Utica, N.Y.
- Harlingen, Texas
- Albany, Georgia
- Flint, Mich.
- Detroit
“Millions of Americans continue to feel left behind by the economic recovery,” Steve Glickman, co-founder and executive director of EIG, said in a statement accompanying the study. “Achieving the American dream should not [be] predetermined by the ZIP code where you happen to be born.”
The data was found by combining U.S. Census Bureau data with populations’ respective education levels, housing vacancy rates, unemployment rates, poverty rates, median incomes, employment opportunities and business establishments.
Of the 50.4 million U.S. residents found to live in distressed ZIP codes, 52 percent of those (26.3 million) are in the Census-defined South — the region stretching from Maryland and Delaware to Oklahoma and Texas — even though southern states hold only 37 percent of the country’s total population.
According to the report, 40 percent of Mississippians and 35 percent of Alabamians live in economically distressed ZIP codes. California, meanwhile, has the largest population in prosperous ZIP codes, while North Dakota has the highest share of its residents in prosperous ZIP codes.
The wealth gap also widened, something the study said was “particularly urgent and alarming because it suggests that well-being will continue to worsen for residents of locales that are locked in a downward spiral.”
Between 2010 and 2013, the study found, the most distressed 10 percent of ZIP codes lost 14 percent of their jobs and saw more than one in 10 businesses close, while during the same period, the most prosperous 10 percent saw employment rise by 22 percent and businesses opening increase 11 percent.
View the interactive map for ZIP codes above, and read the full report here.
