OLMIS

by Guy Tauer
Published Dec-30-2010

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released their 2009 income and poverty estimates for the U.S., states and counties. Effects of the great recession are evident in these data. Income fell and poverty rates rose nationally, statewide, and in most of our local areas between 2008 and 2009. These are estimates and smaller geographic areas have larger margins of error. For example, in the U.S. the poverty rate estimate was 14.3 to 14.4 percent. For Jackson County, it was 12.7 to 17.1 percent.

In 2009, Oregon's poverty rate was estimated at 14.3 percent, the same as the U.S. rate and up from 13.5 percent in 2008. Jackson County's all ages poverty rate bucked the trend and fell from 16.0 percent in 2008 to 14.9 percent in 2009. Almost 23 percent of those younger than 18 in Jackson County lived in poverty in 2009. Josephine County's poverty rate rose from 19.4 percent in 2008 to 20.4 percent in 2009. The younger than 18 year old poverty rate in Josephine County was 33.5 percent in 2009.

Median household income estimates declined between 2008 and 2009 in Oregon and the U.S., but not in the Rogue Valley. In the U.S., household income declined from $52,029 in 2008 to $50,221 in 2009. Oregon's median income fell to $$48,325 in 2009 from $50,165 the prior year. Jackson County's median household income estimate again bucked the trend, rising from $42,027 in 2008 to $45,212 in 2009. Josephine County estimates showed median household income rose from $34,943 in 2008 to $35,509 in 2009.