DENVER – The number of high-poverty neighborhoods in the Denver metro area has more than doubled since 2000, according to the latest report from ApartmentList, which analyzed data from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.
In 2000, metro Denver had 44 neighborhoods that were considered high-poverty, meaning 20 percent or more of residents live below the poverty line. By 2015, that number had climbed to 111.
In Denver and other parts of the country, the bulk of the increases have happened in suburban and rural areas.
While the United States poverty rate increased about 2 percent overall between 2000 and 2015, the rate of increase was much faster in less dense, more suburban areas, according to ApartmentList. Just over half of the poor in high-poverty neighborhoods were in dense urban areas in 2000 but that number had dropped to 43 percent in 2015.
The change doesn’t mean the poor are being pushed out of denser neighborhoods but rather that outlying areas are seeing increasing rates of poverty.
This trend has been less pronounced in Denver. ApartmentList found that the Denver metro saw a 3 percent increase in the share of high-poverty neighborhoods in suburban areas during that 15-year time frame.
Compare that to Cincinnati, Ohio, which saw a 32-percent increase and Indianapolis, Ind., which had a 25-percent increase in the share of high-poverty neighborhoods in suburban areas.
To read the full report, log on to apartmentlist.com.
