THE INCIDENCE OF ECONOMIC-STRESS IN AFFLUENT AREAS - DEVISING MORE ACCURATE MEASURES

Several governmental programs attempt to relieve economic stress for g iven segments of the population. Their success is often contingent upo n how accurately economic distress in given areas can be identified an d measured. The indicator most commonly used is the poverty rate or a related measure, such as the proportion of persons with incomes below 150% of the designated poverty threshold. However, these poverty thres holds are determined nationally and thus fail to take account of local income levels or variations in living costs. Nationally-determined po verty thresholds obscure the existence of economic distress in affluen t areas. This paper explores an alternate methodology that relates hou sehold income at the census tract level to county median household inc ome in order to identify areas of significant poverty. The findings ar e then compared with official poverty statistics. The analysis is perf ormed for Nassau and Suffolk Counties, two affluent suburban counties located on Long Island, adjacent to New York City. The data used came from the 1990 decennial census.