Living in poverty can increase healthcare problems, as well as lead to unsafe neighborhoods and nutritional deficiencies in both children and adults.
Source: Metro
BLADEN COUNTY — Bladen County has seen some interesting trends in recent years, undoubtedly due, at least partially, to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Recent demographic studies have listed Bladen County as the 72nd most populated county out of 100 with approximately 29,734 residents. However, as the population rate continues to trend downward, Ashe and Mongomery Counties, which follow closely behind Bladen with 27,110 and 25,894 residents respectfully, may soon knock Bladen County lower onto the list.
A breakdown of racial and ethnic groups in Bladen County shows that 54.5 percent of the county is White, 33.9 percent of residents are Black, and 7.8 percent are Hispanic.
The most worrying statistic is Bladen County’s poverty rate.
The median household income in Bladen County was around $39,259 in 2021. Unfortunately, the cost of living in North Carolina is approximately $43,959 per year, meaning that Bladen County’s median household income would not provide families making that much or less enough to live comfortably.
According to welfareinfo.org, Bladen County’s poverty rate currently sits at 24.6 percent. This means, given the number of residents in Bladen County, that approximately 7,300 people are living in poverty in the area.
Compared to the state of North Carolina, Bladen County’s poverty rate is 79.56 percent higher. North Carolina’s poverty rate is 13.7 percent of a population of 10,092,759.
The numbers are even more concerning when compared to the United States as a whole. The U.S. has a population of approximately 321,897,703 people and a poverty rate of 12.6 percent. As with the state calculation, due to the differences when comparing percentages in areas with drastically different populations, this means Bladen County’s poverty rate is 95.24 percent higher than the country in its entirety.
Many of the people who experience the worst effects of poverty are children. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the poverty rate for people in Bladen County between the ages of 0 and 17 is 30.6 percent.
Childhood poverty is associated with increased developmental delays, toxic stress, chronic illness due to decreased access to healthcare, and nutritional deficits due to not eating or eating unhealthy food. Individuals who experience childhood poverty are more likely to experience poverty into adulthood, which contributes to generational cycles of poverty and makes it nearly impossible for individuals or families to improve their quality of life.
Creating jobs in Bladen County that pay a liveable wage is crucial to lowering the poverty rate and ensuring that all residents are able to support themselves and their families.