Making sense of the Simplified Poverty SS…
County in question: Benton,
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Population 16 years and over
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In labor force
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Civilian labor force
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Employed
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Unemployed
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Less than $10,000
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$10,000 to $14,999
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$15,000 to $24,999
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$25,000 to $34,999
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$35,000 to $49,999
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$50,000 to $74,999
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$75,000 to $99,999
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$100,000 to $149,999
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$150,000 to $199,999
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$200,000 or more
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Median household income (dollars)
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Poverty-All families
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Poverty- With related children of the householder under 18 years
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Poverty-With related children of the householder under 5 years only
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| 185684 | 0.642 | 0.641 | 0.619 | 0.022 | 0.045 | 0.041 | 0.093 | 0.096 | 0.147 | 0.202 | 0.124 | 0.144 | 0.049 | 0.058 | 59016 | 0.088 | 0.129 | 0.133 |
In Benton County there are 185,684 people of at least 16 years of age, of that number .642 are in the labor force, so 185,684(.642)=119,209 people of age to work who have jobs. Civilian Labor force is nearly the same portion. I can use this formula for the remaining decimals or translate it by using percentages, by moving the decimal to understand the portion of the community pertaining to each category. After considering these numbers and how they relate to the county’s population I think it’s best to look at what categories I think are the most interesting. I think the most news worth categories are the final three,
1. Poverty-All families (.088)= 16,340 total families in poverty
2. Poverty- With related children of the householder under 18 years (.129)16,340= 2,107/8 total families with children
3. Poverty-With related children of the householder under 5 years only (.133)2,108= 280 families with young children
Reviewing these numbers on a spread sheet takes away from the fact that these decimals represent real families.
With these numbers I may continue to look into comparative results of the portion of the Benton county population in poverty with young children to how many are making less than $10,000 a year. I could go through each decimal and find the actual population numbers, then relate each total with the Median Income of the county to understand the scheme of the data. I’m not sure if this is what Professor Wells is looking for in this blog, but this is the sense I can make out of the data presented. I could continue to follow these formulas to understand which counties suffer the most from poverty in Arkansas.
A few issues here: The table is not in an understandable format. Median household income is $59,016 but the data below that heading is the percentage of people making more that $200,000.
The poverty rate should be expressed in percentage terms: 8.8% in Benton County for all families. Do the same with the other categories.
I asked for the highest and lowest median income in the state. I don’t see the lowest here in this blog post. I also asked to post some material about the Nickel and Dimed reading. So please go back and do that before class. Thanks.
Instructions for homework again:
For Readings for Jan 25
Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. Macmillan, 2001. Introduction, Ch. 1
Cohen, Sarah. Numbers in the Newsroom. Ch. 1-2, focus on Rates and Ratios.
Data Homework: Blog post with census household data by county. Highest and lowest median household income. Use this data: Simplified Poverty SS
Blog, due 11:59 pm Tuesday, Jan 23:
1) Nickel & Dimed: Ehrenreich provides a roadmap for how to write about the working poor. I want you to describe some of the issues she has to confront as she moves into this new life – housing, transportation, food and so forth.
2) Based on this reading, begin to develop questions for interview subjects about their experience in the low-wage labor force. Include ideas of where you would go and contact people for our stories.