Surprisingly, of Ohio's 3 C's, Columbus actually has the most poverty (Cleveland: rent, income)

[Subway]

I don't think it's relevant to compare the cities of Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati because Columbus, unlike Cleveland and Cincinnati, annexed a lot of suburban areas. IMO, it's much better to compare their respective counties. Following are the 2006 poverty rates for the counties...

Franklin (Columbus) - 16.3%

Cuyahoga (Cleveland) - 14.8%

Hamilton (Cincinnati) - 14.6%

Franklin County, Ohio - Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months

Cuyahoga County, Ohio - Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months

Hamilton County, Ohio - Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months

[Cle440]

This makes no difference at all because the city of Columbus takes up almost the whole Franklin County which means the city and the county are basically the same.

[OHBuckeye]

Originally Posted by Cle440

the city of Columbus takes up almost the whole Franklin County which means the city and the county are basically the same.

Actually, I'm pretty sure that that is Subway's point. Cities such as Columbus, Indianapolis and Louisville that have annexed most of their suburbs look better than they actually are in studies such as poverty rate, median income and crime rate when compared to cities that haven't annexed. By comparing the entire counties, as Subway did, all three places are on equal footing, as they would also be if the entire metropolitan areas were compared. IOW, if Cincy and Cleveland annexed most of their suburbs as Columbus did, their poverty rates would be much lower than they are. Another way of looking at it: if they only considered the pre-annexation limits of the city of Columbus when computing its poverty rate, it would be much higher than it is with the current post-annexation city limits.

[Buckeye 89]

I try to tell people...Columbus is right up there with cleveland and cincinnati in about everything

[boardmanite]

How about comparing metro areas? Which one has the highest/lowest poverty rates then?

That is surprising about Franklin County. I always assumed it was much better off than Cuyahoga. But I guess I shouldn't have been surprised because Cleveland has some very affluent suburbs within Cuyahoga County...

[Cle440]

I have to disagree with that, I think Cleveland and East Cleveland both have way worse areas than anyplace in Columbus or Franklin County. You dont see the kind of decay you see in Cleveland in Columbus at all. and Cleveland has annexed places too, in 1950 Cleveland only took up 50 sq miles and had a population of 1 million people. Now it takes up 76 sq miles and in those 55 sq miles there are only about 300,000 people. Columbus might not be that good but to me it looks a lot better than Cincinnati or Columbus.

[CTownNative]

Does anyone know what the poverty rate of Columbus would be if you don't include the annexed areas?

[Cle440]

I don't know what the exact poverty rate would be. Im guessing it would be around 23% poverty because some of the areas closer to downtown have lower poverty rates now then they did a while ago. And some of the neighborhoods have actually gotten better closer to downtown and near Ohio State. A couple of neighborhoods have gotten a little bit worse. Yeah I guess Columbus isnt that much better than Cleveland, or Cincinnati but it looked and felt a lot nicer than those two all the times ive been there.

[boardmanite]

Ok, here we go:

Cleveland Metropolitan Area poverty rate in 2000(this is the MSA, so it doesn't include Akron/Canton): 10.5%

Akron MSA: 9.6%

Canton-Massilon MSA: 9.1%

Columbus MSA: 9.6%

Cincinnati MSA: 9.3%

Dayton MSA: 9.7%

Springfield MSA: 10.4%

Toledo MSA: 11.8%

Youngstown-Warren MSA: 11.1%

Here's the link:
http://www.census.gov/compendia/smadb/TableB-04.pdf

These figures are from 2000, but I doubt there has been much change since then. I really don't see any statistically significant differences between the three C's... Some of the smaller cities seem to have a higher rate of poverty, but nothing drastic.

[Buckeye 89]

You dont see the kind of decay you see in Cleveland in Columbus at all.

Because it's the way columbus is set up, Just driving around columbus you will only see the tip of the iceberg...