Justice
The Number of Americans Living in High-Poverty Neighborhoods Is Still on the Rise
12.4 million people now live in economically devastated neighborhoods.
An estimated 12.4 million Americans live in economically devastated neighborhoods, according to American Community Survey data collected from 2008 to 2012. That's an 11 percent jump from the previous survey, conducted from 2007 to 2011. Even more startling, it's a 72 percent increase in the population of high-poverty neighborhoods since the 2000 Census.
The ACS defines an "economically devastated neighborhood" as a census tract where at least 40 percent of its residents are at or below the federal poverty line. This most recent release is the first tract-level data collected entirely after the housing boom.