The suburban Missouri town where Michael Brown was shot dead by a police officer is much poorer today than it was in the recent past.
A memorial near the spot where Michael Brown was shot to death.
Mario Anzuoni / Reuters
In a report issued Friday, The Brookings Institute characterized Ferguson as "emblematic of growing suburban poverty." The take away from the report isn't just that parts of Ferguson are poor, it's that they're newly poor.
"Ferguson's poor population doubled," Brookings notes, and today nearly one in four residents of the city lives below the poverty level. By comparison, only 15% of all Missourians are poor, according to the U.S. Census. Broken down by census track, poverty rates in Ferguson range between 13.1% and 33.3%. That means that in the hardest hit parts of the city, about a third of the people are living in poverty.
In 2000, however, things looked very different. According to Brookings, at that time poverty rates ranged between 4% and 16% in Ferguson's neighborhoods.
This map shows Ferguson in 2000. The lighter the blue, the lower the poverty rate.
This map, from Brookings, shows that in 2000 Ferguson's poverty rates were comparable to or lower than the surrounding areas.
brookings.edu // Brookings
