The Budget and Tax Center, a project of the North Carolina Justice Center, has just released its bi-annual (twice a year) Economic Snapshots showing how people in each of the 100 North Carolina counties are employed, living in poverty, able to afford adequate house or graduated from high school.
Wake County fared pretty well compared to the entire state, but 35,388 of our children in 2014 were living in poverty (14.3 percent compared to 24.1 percent statewide) and 26.6 percent of Wake residents were low income on average from 2010 to 2014, meaning their incomes were less than twice the federal poverty level which was $47,700 for a family of four in 2014.
To see all counties, go to http://www.ncjustice.org/?q=budget-and-tax/btc-brief-county-economic-snapshots-0
Here is Wake County:
Wake County has a population of 1,025,434, which is an increase of 30.3 percent over the last decade.
AVAILABILITY OF JOBS
- There were 22,866 people looking for work in Wake County compared to 41,156 job openings in December 2015.
- The county’s unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in December 2015 compared to 3.9 percent in December 2014.
- There were 86,214 more employed people in the county in December 2015 than there were in December 2007 (when the Great Recession began).
POVERTY AND ECONOMIC HARDSHIP
- 11.5 percent of county residents (112,936 people) lived in poverty and struggled to make ends meet in 2014; the state poverty rate was 17.2%.
- 14.3 percent of children in the county (35,388 children) lived in poverty in 2014, compared to 24.1 percent statewide.
- The poverty rate varies by race: 13.2 percent of American Indians, 18.4 percent of African Americans, and 28.3 percent of Latinos in the county lived in poverty compared to 9.2 percent of Asian Americans and 6.4 percent of whites on average from 2010 to 2014.
- 26.6 percent of the county’s residents were low-income on average from 2010 to 2014, meaning their incomes were less than twice the federal poverty level ($47,700 for a family of four in 2014).
ABILITY TO AFFORD THE BASICS
- The county’s hourly median wage of $17.59 equaled 112.5 percent of the state median wage of $15.63 in 2015. The county’s median hourly wage fell by 11 cents since the recovery began in 2009.7
- For a family size of three it costs $25.69 per hour to make ends meet in the county, where the hourly median wage falls short of what’s needed by 68.5 percent
- Median household income in the county was $66,950, which equaled 143.7 percent of the statewide household income of $46,596 in 2014.
- The richest 5 percent of the county’s households had an average income that was 21 times greater than that of the poorest fifth of households and five times greater than that of the middle fifth of households on average from 2010 to 2014.
ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING
- 46.4 percent of renters in this county spent 30 percent or more of their income towards rent— meaning their rent was unaffordable—on average from 2010-2014.
- Rent and utilities for a safe, modest two-bedroom unit at the county’s fair market monthly rent was $918 in 2015.
- The two-bedroom housing wage in the county was $17.65 in 2015, which far exceeds the state’s minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. This means that a person earning the minimum wage would have to work 97 hours per week to afford a modest two-bedroom unit at fair market rent.
HEALTHY LIVES AND COMMUNITIES
- 12.8 percent of the county’s residents did not have health insurance, compared to 15.5 percent of all North Carolinians on average from 2010 to 2014.
- The life expectancy rate for an African-American child born in the county is 77.9 whereas the rate is 82.2 for a white child. The life expectancy for all children born in this county was 81.5 on average from 2012 to 2014.
- There was one mental health provider for every 374 residents in the county in 2015.
EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
- The high school graduation rate for this county was 86.1 percent compared to the state rate of 85.6 percent in 2014-15.
- The graduation rate for Hispanics in this county was 73.7 percent compared to 74.6 percent for American Indians, 78.9 percent for African Americans, 92.6 percent for whites and 92.7 percent for Asian Americans in 2014-15.
- 48.3 percent of adults in this county had a bachelor’s degree or higher compared to 27.8 percent statewide on average from 2010 to 2014.
- 47.5 percent of women in this county had a bachelor’s degree or higher compared to 49.1 percent of men on average from 2010 to 2014. Of those with this level of educational attainment, the median earnings for women was $42,601 compared to $66,706 for men.
WORK AND INCOME SUPPORTS TO AVOID POVERTY
- 84,465 of the county’s residents received assistance from the food and nutrition services (or food stamps) program in December 2015, with 8.4 percent of residents receiving assistance.
- Due to the return of the harsh three-month time limit for nondisabled childless adults, 4,186 people in this county (and more than 100,000 statewide) could lose food assistance in 2016 if they don’t meet certain exemptions.
- 116,357 people in the county were eligible for Medicaid in December 2015, an increase of 82.9 percent since December 2007 when the recession began. Estimates suggest that 22,578 North Carolinians in the county would benefit from Medicaid Expansion, delivering $2 million in economic benefits to the county.
- In 2013, 61,584 tax filers in the county claimed the state Earned Income Tax Credit, which lawmakers allowed to expire that year. The tax credit went to people that worked but earned low wages, and the benefits totaled $6,474,649 in the county. These were dollars that helped workers make ends meet by allowing them to keep more of what they earned to support their children.
