One in five Illinois children live in poverty

Thousands of Illinoisans move to Indiana

DEMOGRAPHICS | Patrick Yeagle

One in five Illinois children live in poverty, according to data released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The new numbers show both good and bad trends for Illinois, such as a decrease in income inequality but also a migration of residents to other states.

On Sept. 17, the Census Bureau released data on income, health insurance coverage, poverty and the “supplemental poverty measure,” which attempts to measure the effects of government anti-poverty programs.

The data show that an estimated 593,000 children in Illinois – about 21 percent – lived in poverty during 2014. That number didn’t change significantly from 2013, but it has slowly and consistently crept up from 17.2 percent in 2009. Still, Illinois’ rate of child poverty is slightly lower than the national average, and Illinois also has a lower percentage of all people living in poverty (14.7 percent) than the national average of 15.8 percent.

An estimated 1.8 million Illinoisans had incomes below their respective poverty level, a sliding scale based on family size and age. Nearly 3.6 million people have incomes at least five times higher than the poverty level, the largest category at 28.2 percent.

Voices for Illinois Children, a statewide advocacy group calling for better funding of education and social services, lamented Illinois’ child poverty figure, noting that the state is restricting access to certain social service programs and failing to fund many others due to the ongoing budget stalemate.

“With so many children and families still in need, Governor (Bruce) Rauner and lawmakers must enact a year-long budget that raises the revenue necessary to fully fund critical services,” the group said.

Evelyn Diaz, president of the Heartland Alliance, a statewide anti-poverty group, said the state budget crisis endangers people in poverty because many rely on social services to survive.

“These numbers tell us that at a time when our national economy is on the mend, poverty continues its firm grip on Illinois,” Diaz said. “Without action on the state budget, the very programs that fight poverty are at risk of being dismantled, undoing the work of decades and robbing generations of Illinoisans of their health, safety and opportunity.”

The data released last week also show that Illinois lost thousands of residents to other states in 2014. While states like Texas, California and Florida remain popular destinations for Illinoisans – likely because their warm climates attract retirees – Illinois lost the most residents to neighboring states. An estimated 38,177 former Illinois residents moved to Indiana in 2014, while 19,221 people moved from Indiana to Illinois for a net loss to Illinois of almost 19,000. Meanwhile, Wisconsin attracted an estimated 30,423 people from Illinois, with just 15,053 moving here from Wisconsin. In total, Illinois lost nearly 114,000 people in 2014 to other states.

Indiana in particular has been praised by Republicans like Gov. Bruce Rauner for its lower taxes and less regulated business environment. Michael Lucci, vice president of policy for the right-leaning Illinois Policy Institute, explains the out-migration as a reaction to Illinois’ dire fiscal state, especially among businesses. Illinois has relatively higher property taxes, a large unfunded pension liability, unpaid bills and higher workers compensation costs, Lucci says, which makes surrounding states look more attractive.

“Businesses look at opportunity,” Lucci said. “If you’re a business looking at two states to locate whatever it is, you’d look at the state budget in Illinois and the state budget in Indiana. You’d look at their unfunded liabilities. Indiana is comparatively stable and tax-friendly.”

Illinois does have a lower rate of child poverty than Indiana, along with a higher median income and college education rate.

The census data also contain bright spots for Illinois, one of only six states which saw their rates of income inequality drop in 2014. The Census Bureau uses the “Gini index,” a widely cited benchmark in which 0.0 represents total income equality and 1.0 means total inequality. Illinois’ Gini index score fell from 0.4824 in 2013 to 0.4765 in 2014. The score has trended upward toward greater inequality since at least 2006, but 2014 represents the sharpest decrease in the score during that period.

For more information on the census data, visit bit.ly/census2014data.

Contact Patrick Yeagle at [email protected].