The number of Syracuse residents living in poverty increased slightly despite both national and state decreases in poverty rates, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Syracuse’s poverty rate in 2017 rose to 32.4 percent from 32.1 percent in 2016, according to Census data. This marked the third consecutive year that the percent of Syracuse residents living in poverty has increased.

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The new census data makes Syracuse one of the top 10 poorest cities in the United States, tying with Bloomington, Indiana and Dearborn, Michigan at No. 9, according to Syracuse.com.

About 41,650 people in Syracuse lived below the poverty line in 2017, according to Census estimates.

Abby Fritz | Digital Design Editor

The poverty rates in the nation and New York state both decreased by 0.6 percent, per the Census data. About 13.4 percent of Americans lived in poverty in 2017.

Children under the age of 5 are among the groups that suffer the most from poverty in Syracuse, with 50.1 percent living below the poverty line in 2017. Among city residents under the age of 18, 47.4 percent lived in poverty last year.

The proportion of Syracuse residents with incomes below the poverty line is highest among the city’s black and Hispanic residents.

In 2017, 58 percent of Syracuse’s Hispanic population lived below the poverty line, up from 40.5 percent in 2016.

The percent of black people living below the poverty line dropped 2.4 percent from 2016 to 40.7 percent. About 25 percent of white residents lived in poverty in 2017.

Abby Fritz | Digital Design Editor

The jump in poverty among Hispanics living in Syracuse comes when that number is decreasing in both New York state and the nation. The percent of Hispanics with incomes below the poverty line in the state dropped 2.4 percent to 21.8 percent in 2017, and decreased to 19.4 nationally.

The median household income in Syracuse in 2017 was $35,568, per Census data. That is roughly half of the U.S. average household income of $60,366.

For college graduates with a bachelor’s degree or higher, the poverty rate was 13.1 percent in Syracuse.

Albany’s poverty rate dropped from 23.9 percent in 2016 to 21.9 percent in 2017. The city of Rochester’s poverty rate remained at 32.3 percent during the same period. In New York City, 18 percent of people lived in poverty in 2017.

Published on September 16, 2018 at 10:07 pm

Contact Casey: [email protected] | @caseydarnell_