Data analysis on poverty in Tri-Cities, Washington
1. Research Question
What is the poverty rate by age in Tri-Cities, Washington? Why is this important?
The Tri-Cities is three separate municipalities that share borders; they’re located where the Columbia, Snake and Yakima Rivers meet in Southeastern Washington. While the geographies and available industries remain the same in the area, a difference in poverty rates demonstrate many important planning issues and open up many other research questions to explore such as the impact of government subsidy on wealth generation, who is historically left out of anti-poverty programs, the intersections of American defense projects and city infrastructure.
Childhood poverty rates are the highest in the country and despite a relatively high median income compared to Washington State, the Tri-Cities have a higher percentage of people under 18-years-old living below the poverty rate than the rest of the state.
2. Data
The American Community Survey (ACS) collects local and comparable demographic (e.g. total population, race, age), social (e.g. education, marital status, fertility), economic (e.g class of worker, employment status, industry) and housing characteristics (e.g. tenure, rent, number of bedrooms) data around the country. The ACS collects 1-year (12 months of data) and 5-year (60 months of data) estimates.
The 5-Year ACS data published in 2023 was used to make the following charts. This was selected because it was the most recent data, provided a more complete picture of the research question, had a lower margin of error and also included race data which was not available in the 1-Year data. The variables examined are the percent of people living under the poverty line and age demographics in Richland, Kennewick and Pasco and the state of Washington.
The Tri-Cities is an interesting geography because the area grew from federal defense investment in World War II. The region was selected for the Manhattan Project to irradiate uranium to produce the plutonium for the atomic bomb that was dropped over Nagasaki. It was chosen because of its proximity to high volumes of fresh water and it was far away from other metro areas. The region remained heavily reliant on Department of Defense spending throughout the Cold War as nine reactors were constructed. Fuel production ended in 1987. Today, Hanford is the site of an extensive environmental clean up project to encase vast quantities of nuclear waste into glass for long-term storage. This region holds personal significance for me because it’s where I grew up and four generations of my family, including myself, have worked at the site.
3. Findings
The data indicates different poverty rates in each of the Tri-Cities. Children under 18 had the highest rates of poverty but also had the highest margin of error in their data. However, that trend is echoed in the poverty rate for Washington State. The age group 35-64 and the lowest poverty rates with a slight increase for those of retirement age.
Kennewick had the highest rates of poverty compared to Richland, Pasco and the rest of Washington State at 19.1 percent (±5.2); the poverty rate remained higher than 10 percent for all age groups. Richland had the lowest overall poverty rate despite a high rate of poverty for children under 5 but a high margin of error.
4. Discussion
The difference in poverty rates between Richland, Kennewick and Pasco follow historic development and investment trends. After Hanford was selected as one of the irradiation facilities during WWII the next closest town, Richland, had a large influx of highly paid and highly educated engineers, physicists and skilled laborers who built and ran the nuclear facilities and the national lab. Pasco and Kennewick have remained economically dependent on Richland and federal investment. This is reflected in Richland’s low poverty rate. Kennewick and Pasco have historically been dependent on Richland and by extension the federal investment in the Hanford Site and national lab, but have not benefited equally. Today, this federal investment comes in the form of jobs either with the federal government directly or through one of the many subcontractors. In 2024, Hanford received a historic $3.05 billion. Social programs like Community Development Block Grants and Section 8 Vouchers, investments that could reduce the high childhood poverty rate lag behind. In future analysis it would be interesting to compare median home price, and median income between the Tri-Cities, as well as their largest industries.
This assignment was written for Dr. Aaron Golub’s class Planning Methods II.
References
Department of Ecology. (2024, March 11). More than $3 billion approved for Hanford Site cleanup – a new record. https://ecology.wa.gov/about-us/who-we-are/news/2024/mar-11-more-than-3-billion-approved-for-hanford-site-cleanup-a-new-record
Development Services. (n.d.) Community Development Block Grant Funding. City of Richland. Retrieved January 24, 2024 https://www.ci.richland.wa.us/departments/development-services/community-development-block-grant
U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.). Poverty status in the last 12 months S1701. American Community Survey. Retrieved January 24, 2024, from https://data.census.gov/
U.S. Department of Energy. (n.d.). Understanding the Past. The Hanford Site. Retrieved January 25, 2025 from https://www.hanford.gov/page.cfm/understandPAST
