Looking at Suburban Poverty in Metro Atlanta

It has been well-documented that poverty in metro Atlanta has a new narrative – a narrative that is increasingly occurring in the suburbs. This month we check back in on this issue and find that while food stamp usage, an oft-used proxy measure for poverty, has more than doubled since 2007, usage has actually declined over the past year (2013-2014). Other findings from the report include:

• Metro Atlanta’s 7.2 percentage point increase in the suburban poverty rate between 2000 and 2013 is the largest increase among the nation’s 25 most populous metro areas.
• While food stamp usage more than doubled between 2007 and 2014, there are 3.6 percent fewer food stamp recipients in 2014 when compared to 2013.
• In fact, every county in the 20-county Atlanta region experienced a decline in the number of people receiving food stamps over the past year (2013-2014), except DeKalb County, which saw a slight 2.6 percent increase in food stamp usage.
• High-poverty neighborhoods have greater concentrations of unfavorable characteristics, including higher disability rates, lower health insurance coverage rates, lower educational attainment rates and higher teen birth rates.