Abstract.
American policy analysts have assumed that poverty is increasingly concentrating in the inner suburbs of large cities. This study demonstrates that that assumption is inaccurate. Using data on household income and poverty for suburban civil divisions from the 1970, 1980 and 1990 US Censuses, this article calculates values for two indicators of the change in the relative concentration of income and poverty, the coefficient of variation, and a regression of changes on initial values. Results indicate that poverty and income concentrations have not generally increased among suburbs over the last twenty years. There is evidence, however, that poverty has increasingly concentrated within some suburban municipalities of older metropolitan areas in the northeast and midwest.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Received: 16 June 2001 / Accepted: 12 July 2002
RID="*"
ID="*" This research was partially supported by the Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy. Scott Stoner-Eby painstakingly put together the data across censuses for a consistently bounded set of suburban jurisdictions. Comments from anonymous referees improved the manuscript.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Madden, J. Has the concentration of income and poverty among subsurbs of large US metropolitan areas changed over time?. Papers Reg Sci 82, 249–275 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s101100300151
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s101100300151