Mapping the Intersections of Poverty, Race and COVID-19
A Poor People’s Pandemic Report
From the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, Repairers of the Breach, Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice and Howard University School of Education
Crises do not unfold independent of the conditions from which they arise. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated preexisting social and economic disparities that have long festered in the US. Widespread and unequal distribution of wealth, income and resources prior to the pandemic created the conditions for many of the negative outcomes associated with the virus. However, to date, very little is known about the impacts of poverty - alongside occupation, race, gender, age and ability - on COVID-19 outcomes. Income and wealth information is not systematically collected for people who have died or fallen ill from COVID-19 in the US. Even in counties where death rates may be high, there is no way to know the poverty or income status of who died. This has left a gap in our assessment of the pandemic, including both its drivers and solutions.
The Poor People’s Pandemic Report connects data about COVID-19 deaths at the county level to other demographic characteristics to help clarify the connection between poverty, race and COVID-19. (To overcome the limits of current poverty measures, poverty is broadly defined to include the population living under 200% of the poverty thresholds, both OPM and SPM, with clear references to which one is being used). Key findings include the following:
The geographies of county poverty are striking: 73% of counties with the lowest median income, and 76% of counties with the highest percentage of people in poverty, are located in the southeast and southwest of the country.
Poverty in the US is widespread: in 2019, even the richest counties have poor people living there, with people living in poverty making up anywhere between 11 to 94% of a county's population (2019 ACS 5-year estimates).
During the pandemic, poor communities have grieved nearly two times the losses of richer communities: After grouping counties by median household income of the county into groups with equal population, with Group 1 having the highest median income and Group 10 the lowest, the report card shows that death rates in the highest income group are half what the death rates are in the lowest income group.