Memphis Poverty Fact Sheet

A local study of poverty rates in Memphis and Shelby County confirms what most people, local and otherwise, probably already suppose to be the case.

The incidence of poverty is higher in the city proper than in the county as a whole, and both Memphis and Shelby County have a higher rate of poverty than does Tennessee, while the state itself has a higher incidence of poverty than pertains in the nation.

**Poverty as a percentage of population** (Photo: Courtesy Delavega and Blumenthal)

The study, entitled 2024 Memphis Poverty Fact Sheet, was prepared by local analysts Elena Delavega and Gregory M. Blumenthal, a husband-and-wife team who undertake annual statistical reports on the incidence of poverty.

If there is a surprise in the study, based on 2020 census figures, it is that poverty rates for non-Hispanic whites are higher in Tennessee at large than in the United States, Shelby County, and the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) of Memphis.

This might seem to suggest a rising affluence gap between the state’s white residents and its Black and brown residents. It also has implications concerning the effects of out-migration from the Memphis area.

Poverty has increased since last year, the authors find. “This is true for most groups, including children and minorities, but not for whites in Memphis or Shelby County,” they say. “Poverty for non-Hispanic whites has fallen since 2022. It also appears that the population size of non-Hispanic whites in the city of Memphis has dropped more than for other groups, suggesting that those non-Hispanic whites who left were those in poverty.”

It is “not a surprise,” say the authors, that the poverty rate among minorities is higher than among whites. Indeed, they find that structural disparities based on race seem to have accelerated in 2023. “[These] disparities remain and will require deliberate efforts to dismantle. Solving poverty will require regional solutions and regional investments.”

One possible explanation for what seems to be a deepening divide locally is that the labor market in Memphis tends to consist of unskilled workers in the warehouse industry. “The lack of comprehensive, effective, and efficient public transportation also makes progress against poverty quite difficult,” the authors maintain.

“An additional problem has been that of external firms acquiring Memphis housing stock and renting it to Memphians at inflated prices, which makes it almost impossible for local families to afford housing.”

Finally, say the authors, “The divide between the city and the county, as evidenced by the racial and geographical differences in poverty, tends to deprive the city of Memphis of the funds it needs to support the region.”

Apropos the racial divide, the authors note that while Memphis ranks second in overall poverty and first in child poverty among large MSAs (urbanized areas with populations greater than 1,000,000) and second in overall poverty and child poverty among cities with over 500,000 population, it ranks significantly better when only whites are included.

Ranked only by its white population, Memphis is positioned significantly lower in the list, ranking 25th among 54 large MSAs (populations greater than 1,000,000) and 61st among 114 MSAs with populations greater than 500,000.

Ominously, the authors conclude that while the long-term poverty trend provides evidence of the structural nature of poverty in Memphis, five-year trend graphs suggest that disparities are increasing along racial lines.

• Meanwhile, on the eve of the pending presidential election, an equally fraught finding comes from a new poll by the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy. The survey, conducted from September 20th to 23rd, based on responses from 1,030 adults across the nation, concludes that most Americans think that democracy is in danger.

More than 50 percent of Americans think that our democracy is “under attack” in the run-up to the election. The Unity Poll is meant to offer “regular snapshots of Americans’ sense of national political unity and their faith in the country’s democratic institutions,” according to Vanderbilt professor John Geer.

Memphis Poverty Fact Sheet 2020

The ‘racialization’ of Memphis poverty, according to the latest Memphis Poverty Fact Sheet.

Experts say we must equalize the wealth gap in Memphis but we’re not doing it now.

According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, the median household income in the metropolitan area is $54,000; Blacks earn about $40,000, whites $75,000, and Latinos $39,000.

Black people in Memphis are 64 percent of the population. Whites make up 29 percent of the local population.

So, while the median white income is nearly double that of most Black incomes, Black people outnumber whites here nearly three to one.

The majority of the city’s poor (according to Bureau definitions) in Memphis are Black. Nearly 23 percent of the 25 percent of people living in poverty are Black, census figures show. According to the Memphis Poverty Fact Sheet 2020, Memphis has the second worst poverty numbers of a major metropolitan area, only behind New Orleans.

Memphis Poverty Fact Sheet Graph

According to the fact sheet, the poverty rates for Memphis and Shelby County decreased in 2019 in comparison to 2018. Nonetheless, population sizes for most groups except Blacks in the city of Memphis have increased.

In the Memphis Poverty Fact Sheet, it states that how this community will be affected by COVID-19 remains to be seen, but it is to be expected that poverty will increase in the next few years; even after the pandemic has subsided.

According to the Memphis Poverty Fact Sheet, as a result of the closures and desertion of businesses — particularly tourism, entertainment, and restaurant/bars — consumer spending declined in March 2020 compared to January 2020 in the U.S. by 32.9 percent; in Tennessee by 26.9 percent; in Shelby County by 32.4 percent; and the Memphis Metro Statistical Area by 32.4 percent.

U of M

Delavega

“There are a number of things that contribute to the wealth gap — the way that wealth is inherited for instance, people that come from poverty have a much harder way to make any wealth at all,” said Elena Delavega, Memphis poverty expert with the University of Memphis School of Social Work. “If somebody receives a car on their 16th birthday, there is a ton of privilege in that. Even if they do not receive money directly.”

Delavega says that we must work actively to equalize the system, and at this moment we don’t. The poor and working classes do not have social access to wealth as much, therefore, they don’t have the ability to face economic shocks.

When asked what we can do about this, Delavega says that the onus should reside with those in positions of power.

“We are blaming the victims. If you have no wealth, you can work really hard and still you are going to be behind,” she said. “There is no way they can catch up. In Memphis, for example, public transportation is very underfunded, we’re not funding it as a society.”

“The lack of public transportation hurts those who are poor the most. It is a racist economic apartheid. You have Collierville for example — their taxes are lower but they refuse to fund public transportation properly,” said Delavega.

However, some say that not all Black people in Memphis are poor or working class.

“I definitely think Black wealth exists in Memphis,” said Cynthia Daniels, of Cynthia Daniels and Co. “There are pockets of it.”

Her company focuses on offering events to African-American audiences. Daniels said she generated over $2 million in sales for Black businesses in Memphis and across the country during the pandemic. She devised the Juneteenth Shop Black Virtual Experience that garnered $1 million in sales.

“A lot of the restaurants had to close their doors,” she said. “I wanted to create a virtual space for Memphis vendors.”

Daniels was a volunteer for the Memphis Urban League Young Professionals for four years. There, she learned that Memphis had a demand for events geared toward the Black middle-class and wealthy.

Similar to the Memphis Flyer’s 20<30, Daniels throws an awards banquet called 40<40.

“When people are awarded, they get promotions, their companies grow, they get more visibility and representation,” she said.

When asked what we can do about closing the wealth gap, Delavega contends minorities should unify their votes.

“Minorities should know the power of their vote. One vote really does count,” she said. “It’s not so much the color of the person elected; it’s their policies. Racism is a tool of the powerful to divide. Minorities need to work together.”