DESPITE ZUMBA RECORD, B'VILLE STILL POCKET OF POVERTY

(While these rankings of poorest cities in the United States doesn't compare with the most zumba dancers Guinness Book of World Records feat (are you listening commissioner Rose Gowen?), the most people dipping their fishing lines in a resaca, or the southernmost city in the continental U.S., they do show us that the priorities of our elected leaders are somewhat skewered in focus. No matter how many people you get in Speedo bike outfits pedaling through cordoned blocks of the city one evening a month, we remain known as a pocket of poverty that none of those amazing feats and records will change. Read the cold hard facts here. Everyone else in the civilized world knows the truth. We're number four in the top ten. Call Guinness now!))

By Christine DiGangi

Credit.com
Sept. 24. 2013
In the annual American Community Survey, the U.S. Census Bureau releases statistics on the population. Age, race, location, income — these and more are outlined in the report, and the 2012 survey, released this month, gave insight into the country’s wealth distribution.

Last year, the median U.S. household income was $51,371. To determine which areas have the highets and lowest income, we used the bureau’s American Fact Finder tool to sort the data of 2,120 metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas.
Much like high-income areas, the low-income areas showed an interesting geographical makeup. Nine of the 10 lowest median incomes are found in the South, as it is defined by the Census Bureau.
Conversely, the high-income areas showed more geographical diversity. While half of the them are on the East Coast, including the cities surrounding Washington, the other five are in California, Hawaii and Alaska. The high-income areas reported a median income of more than $69,000 a year.
Meanwhile, the low-income areas don’t go above $32,860. Three of them are in North Carolina, two are in Texas and the only area outside the South is in New Mexico. Other states with cities on the list are Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia. Virginia is the only state to have cities on both ends of the median-income spectrum.
And as far as population goes, the high-income areas are generally larger than the low-income ones. The Census Bureau defines a metro area as containing a “core urban area of 50,000 or more population, and a micro area contains an urban core of at least 10,000 (but less than 50,000) population.”
Only one of the high-income areas is a micro area, and only two of the low-income areas are metro. Population didn’t directly correlate to the area’s rank in its list. For this list, we used the 2011 population estimates, as those are the most recent available for these areas.

10. Dalton, Ga.

• Population: 142,741
• Income: $32,858

9. Forest City, N.C.

• Population: 67,538
• Income: $32,836

8. Nacogdoches, Texas

• Population: 65,466
• Income: $32,555

7. Martinsville, Va.

• Population: 67,300
• Income: $32,196

6. Cookeville, Tenn.

• Population: 106,498
• Income: $31,813

5. Talladega-Sylacauga, Ala.

• Population: 81,664
• Income: $31,547

4. Brownsville-Harlingen, Texas

• Population: 414,123
• Income: $30,953

3. Roanoke Rapids, N.C.

• Population: 76,066
• Income:$29,930

2. Gallup, N.M.

• Population: 73,664
• Income: $29,696

1. Lumberton, N.C.

• Population: 135,517
• Income: $28,293