The number of Americans living in slums increased 33% in the past decade.
This scary trend was identified by a report out this morning from Brookings. Slums (our term) refer to areas of concentrated poverty where at least 40 percent of individuals live under the poverty line.
In the 1990s, America’s slum population decreased from 9,101,622 to 6,574,815. Many neighborhoods experienced gentrification, which saw poor people move out of, say, Park Slope in Brooklyn and Starbucks move in and property prices soar.
From 2000 to 2009, however, the slum population climbed back to 8,735,395 (since then it probably rose even higher). A full 747 census tracts returned to slum status.
Click on to see the cities with the greatest increases in concentrated poverty. The South and the Midwest are leading the collapse.
(10) Hartford saw a 9.5% increase in people living in slums. The city itself is the 6th worst overall.
(9) Dayton Ohio had a 9.9% increase in poverty, and it’s all because of poverty in the city.
(8) There was 10.5% increase in slums of the Poughkeepsie area, mostly in the suburbs. The city of Poughkeepsie actually improved.
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