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2000 Census

Key Facts - Income - Poverty by Census Tract

• The number of census tracts with extremely high poverty rates fell in 1999 to less half the number in 1989. The extraordinarily long economic expansion of the 1990s, distinguished during the later part of the decade by rising productivity in the nation and by very low unemployment rates and labor shortages in the Twin Cities, helped reduce concentrated poverty .
• The number of census tracts with at least 40 percent of people in poverty fell to a total of 15 in 1999 from a total of 33 in 1989. (There were 689 census tracts in 2000 and 606 in 1990.)
• Concentrated poverty significantly improved in Minneapolis and St. Paul and did not spread to surrounding suburbs. All census tracts with at least 40 percent of people in poverty were located in the central cities in 1999 and 1989, and the number of such tracts shrank in 1999.
• The number of census tracts with high poverty rates also decreased over the decade. In 1999, 77 census tracts had poverty rates of 20 percent and over compared to 91 in 1989.
• High poverty rates remained nearly confined to the central cities. Among census tracts with at least 20 percent of people in poverty, only one tract was located outside the central cities in 1999, consistent with the pattern seen in 1989.
• From 1989 to 1999, a number of extremely poor areas improved to a lower poverty level, although boundary changes make census tract comparisons problematic, especially in Minneapolis. Census tracts with poverty rates ranging from 20 percent to less than 40 percent increased from a total of 58 in 1989 to 62 in 1999 as the number of census tracks with extremely high poverty rates diminished.