Perry's Texas has highest poverty regions in U.S.

By Tomi Johnson...Texas has the poorest people in the nation within its borders. Texas is governed by Governor Rick Perry, a Republican candidate for president who claims that more jobs have been created in Texas than any other state.

"The Texas region defined by the cities of McAllen, Edinburg and Mission had the highest poverty rate in the country -- 33.4 percent," wrote Lisa Lambert, Huffington Post business writer. The report was based on U.S. Census data released last week.

McAllen is the largest city in Hidalgo County which also is the home of Edinburg and Mission which are in Southern Texas. According to Wikipedia, "Hidalgo County is consequently one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States, and is the seventh most-populous county in Texas."

Other highlights concerning U.S. poverty from government data include the following:

* The number of people in poverty in 2010 (46.2 million) is the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published.

* The official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent — up from 14.3 percent in 2009. This was the third consecutive annual increase in the poverty rate. Since 2007, the poverty rate has increased by 2.6 percentage points, from 12.5 percent to 15.1 percent.

* Between 2009 and 2010, the poverty rate increased for non-Hispanic Whites (from 9.4 percent to 9.9 percent), for Blacks (from 25.8 percent to 27.4 percent), and for Hispanics (from 25.3 percent to 26.6 percent). For Asians, the 2010 poverty rate (12.1 percent) was not statistically different from the 2009 poverty rate.

* Between 2009 and 2010, the poverty rate increased for children under age 18 (from 20.7 percent to 22.0 percent) and people aged 18 to 64 (from 12.9 percent to 13.7 percent).

Map by David Benbennick - Public Domain.
Census Data: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/about/overview/index.html