Individual Poverty Rates

• According to the U.S. Census, 10.5% of people in the U.S. had incomes below the poverty line in 2019, so Minnesota has a slightly lower and Wisconsin a slightly higher proportion of their populations living in poverty.
• Except for Burnett County, all the St. Croix River Valley counties had much lower proportions of their populations living in poverty than their respective state averages.
• Wisconsin counties in the St. Croix River Valley tend to have higher proportions of their populations with incomes below the poverty line than their Minnesota counterparts.

• For Wisconsin and most of its St. Croix River Valley counties the percentage of individuals living in poverty was flat to slightly increasing until 2014.
• Since 2014 the percentage of individuals living in poverty has been trending downward in all jurisdictions.
• St. Croix County has consistently had a substantially lower and Pierce and Polk Counties slightly lower proportions of their populations living in poverty than Wisconsin as a whole.
• While Burnett has consistently had a higher proportion of their residents living in poverty than the state average, that gap has been narrowing over time.

• The proportion of people in Minnesota living in poverty has been essentially flat over the 2019 – 2019 period.
• The percentages of individuals living in poverty in Chisago and Washington Counties have consistently been below the state average and have declined modestly over the 2009 – 2019 time period.

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