Mayor Don Ness said Wednesday he thinks he knows partly why Census estimates show Duluth's poverty rate rising from 21 percent in 2008 to 25 percent in 2009.
It appears the Census did a better job of counting college students this year, and many of them technically are living in poverty. The number of students counted in Duluth increased from 14,102 in 2008 to 15,219 in 2009, according to the results of the latest U.S. Census American Community Survey, released Tuesday.
"Very few students make enough income to be above the poverty income standards," Ness wrote in a note to the News Tribune. "So, this large and growing portion of our population will influence our statistics, but it may not accurately reflect the percentage of residents 'living in poverty' as we traditionally think of it."
Many Duluth college students confirmed that they don't make enough money to rank above the poverty line, which is $10,956 a year for a single person under 2009 guidelines.
Many don't have jobs during the school year, and don't make much over the summer months.
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"I would say about $3,000 for the summer," said Raquel Van Norman at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
The student factor contributes disproportionately to the poverty level in Duluth, local experts believe, in part because the Census has never counted students in Duluth very well.
"In 2000, they missed about half the college students in the count," said Drew Digby, a regional labor market analyst for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.
Digby estimates that if you didn't count college students, Duluth's poverty level would be about 20 percent.
According to the Census survey, the poverty rate in the larger Duluth-Superior metropolitan area was 15.2 percent in 2009, up from 12.4 percent in 2006.
