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AEDI Finds Family Income, Poverty Trends ‘Hopeful’

2 min read

Both the median and average family income increased for 2013-2017, compared with the preceding five-year period, 2008-2013, according to the American Community Survey released Thursday by the Arkansas Economic Development Institute at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

The percentage of families below poverty in the state also declined, by 6.4 percent.

“It’s not a lot, but I think we should take what we get. To me, it’s hopeful. These are hopeful signs,” AEDI Senior Demographer Pam Willrodt told Arkansas Business.

Willrodt explained that statisticians prefer median to means, because median is the middle value in a set of numbers and “gets rid of extreme highs and lows.”

But the average is the number most people understand, she said. The average family income for 2013-2017 increased by 4.9 percent to $72,907, from $69,478 in 2008-2013. The median family income increased by 1.9 percent to $54,923.

About the state’s progress in fighting poverty, Willrodt said, “Is it enough? No. But it’s a start.”

Arkansas experienced decreases in three measures of poverty from 2008-2012 to 2013-2017. The percentage of all people below the poverty threshold went down by 3.2 percent. The percent of children and young people under 18 below poverty threshold went down by 5.2 percent. And the percent of people 65 and over below poverty threshold went down by 6.3 percent.

Per capita income in Arkansas for 2013-2017 also went up from 2008-2013, by 3.8 percent to an estimated $24,426, according to the report.

The next step is to look at these trends and figure out what is causing them as well as how to replicate the trends we want to see, Willrodt said.

For example, the median family income in Madison County went up by 25.7 percent. Arkansas needs to find out what went right there and what can be done to help the rest of the state see gains, she said.

AEDI State Economic Forecaster Michael Pakko told Arkansas Business on Friday that he hadn’t yet taken an in-depth look at the survey.

But improvements in income are consistent with the slow economic expansion and recovery that he and other economists have been observing for the past several years, Pakko said.

He also said the report is helpful because it is very detailed and allows researchers to look at things on a county level. 

“We don’t often get that very fine-grain point of view,” Pakko said.

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