341 U.S. Counties Experiencing Persistent Poverty

DATA USER NOTE:

On July 17, 2026, the Bureau of Labor Statistics re-released SPM thresholds for 2019-2024 following the discovery of coding errors. The U.S. Census Bureau will publish revised SPM poverty rates using these updated thresholds prior to the release of the annual poverty report in September. Refer to BLS statement and Census statement for more information.

About 10.9% of the nation’s 3,142 counties experienced high poverty rates for an extended period, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau report on persistent poverty.

In this report, an area is considered in persistent poverty if it had a poverty rate of 20.0% or higher during the three decades period from 1989 to 2015-2019.

Persistent and chronic poverty are different; the former focuses on places with a long history of high poverty while chronic poverty is used to identify people consistently in poverty.

Research suggests people living in high poverty areas experience significant barriers to well-being whether or not they’re poor themselves. The longer poverty exists in an area, the more likely the community lacks adequate infrastructure and support services.

Counties identified as being in persistent poverty were typically less populous; they made up 10.9% of counties but only 6.1% of the U. S. population.

For that reason, government agencies want to identify areas with high rates of poverty over time to determine if they need support.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) - The 10-20-30 Provision was previously used to define persistent poverty and to identify counties that experienced it. But federal agencies use a variety of definitions (with different years and data sources) that identify a different number of counties that need support.

This Census Bureau project provides several possible options to identify persistent poverty (About This Research below). It also expands on existing research by examining subcounty geographies down to census tracts. Drilling down to that level provides a more complete count of people living in areas of persistent poverty.

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