Since the pandemic, we have been hearing a lot about poverty, restaurants and small businesses having to close their doors either temporarily or permanently.  Some closed for a time because it was actually more economical to cap the overhead than it was to stay open to only 25% capacity limits.

St. Cloud was mentioned on a list of cities in Minnesota that have extreme poverty cases.  This number, however is slightly skewed by the fact that St. Cloud has several colleges, and those people aren't making a lot of money because they are in school. This does throw the number off a bit.  This is the same situation in Mankato which was also mentioned on the list from  

According to this website, the hardest hit town in Minnesota is Duluth.  What is the income level to be put into this category?  $12, 880 for an individual for a year and $26,500 for a family of four.  This means that there are several people living in Duluth that are dealing with this situation, not being able to necessarily put food on the table for their families, and sometimes not even for themselves.

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Cities and neighborhoods that have high poverty levels have other struggles that they are dealing with as well.  This includes a higher crime rate, less education availability or possiblility, lower paying jobs in the area, and even health issues.

In Duluth, labor force participants in the three neighborhoods with poverty rates of 40% or higher are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as those living in the rest of the city.

If you would like to see how the rest of country shakes out- check out this table on the Southernminn website.  You can also see all of the factors that are adding up to this conclusion.



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