Cleveland has second highest poverty rank in US

By M.R. KROPKO

Associated Press Writer

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Cleveland was the nation's second most impoverished big city in 2007, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey released Tuesday.

The northeast Ohio city along Lake Erie is among U.S. cities which have suffered from job losses and a rising tide of foreclosures.

The data indicates Ohio has pockets of poverty statewide. Ohio's poverty rate was 13.1 percent, ranking it 19th among states nationally and tied with South Dakota, just a tenth of a percentage point above the national average.

Cleveland, with an estimated 29.5 percent of its population in poverty, is ranked only behind Detroit among cities with 250,000 or more people. Detroit had an estimated 33.8 percent in poverty last year.

The Census data put Cleveland's total up 2.5 percentage points from last year's report. A year ago, the American Community Survey using 2006 data ranked Cleveland as the fourth most impoverished city, with a 27 percent poverty rate.

Two of the three years before that, Cleveland had the highest poverty ranking in the nation.

In the Census data released Tuesday, Cincinnati ranked 10th nationally, with an estimated 23.5 percent of its population in poverty. In last year's report, Cincinnati's estimated poverty rate was 27.8 percent, or third highest nationally among big cities.

Two smaller Ohio cities, Youngstown and Dayton, were estimated to have poverty rates higher than Cleveland's but less that Detroit's.

According to the Census estimates, Youngstown's poverty rate in 2007 was 32.6 percent and Dayton's was 30.2 percent.

Other Ohio cities and their poverty rates were: Akron, 23.6 percent; Toledo, 22.6 percent; Canton, 21.1 percent; Columbus, 21 percent; Lorain, 20.9 percent and Parma, 6.2 percent.

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On the Net:

http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/acs-09.pdf