Combatting Poverty

Who in Idaho is living in poverty?

    

The United States classifies poverty as a family of four earning $24,250 or less each year⁴. That’s $2,021 per month to pay rent, buy groceries, pay utilities, and afford the other necessities of life.

• 14.8% of Idaho’s population lives below the poverty line¹
• 15.0% of Idaho’s women live in poverty²
• 8.4% of Idaho’s seniors live in poverty⁵
• 35% of all Idaho single-parent families live in poverty³
  • 41.7% of female-headed families live in poverty²
• Madison County has the highest rate of poverty in the state: 27.1% of the total population¹
• Blaine County has the lowest percentage of poverty in the state: 10.6% of the total population¹
• 80, 668 of Idaho’s children – or 19.0% of kids under the age of 18 – live in poverty¹
• At least 25% of children live in poverty in 7 out of 44 counties:
  • Adams: 27.3%
  • Boise: 25.0%
  • Gooding: 25.2%
  • Lemhi: 26.9%
  • Lewis: 25.6%
  • Owyhee: 30.0%
  • Shoshone: 27.2%

Sources

1. U.S. Census Bureau (2014)
2. National Women’s Center (2014)
3. Idaho Kids Count Data Center (2014)
4. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (2015)
5. U.S. Census Bureau (2014)