Rural Poverty in Three Southern Regions: Mississippi Delta, Ozarks, Southeast Coastal Plain.

Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 20402

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Age Differences; Area Studies; Disadvantaged Youth; Education; Employment; Family (Sociological Unit); Housing; Income; Individual Characteristics; Occupational Information; Poverty; Poverty Areas; Racial Factors; Rural Areas; Tables (Data)

The focus of this report is on poverty and its relationships to certain individual characteristics as distributed across 3 regions: the Ozarks, Mississippi Delta, and Southeast Coastal Plain. After a broad description of these areas, the study looks at (1) age of household heads, (2) number of persons in households, (3) housing quality (running water), (4) sex of household head, (5) residence and poverty status, (6) age and residence, (7) occupational profile, (8) sources of income, (9) gross farm income and farm tenure, (10) education, and (11) race. Results indicate that the Mississippi Delta had the highest incidence of severe and persistent rural poverty (as defined in this report). Also, three-fourths of the poverty problems were associated with nonparticipation in the labor force, farm laborer occupations, and operation of small subsistence farms. An extreme gap in educational achievement was revealed between the poor and nonpoor and, in general, Negroes comprised a large proportion of poverty populations. Differences in the distribution of poor persons, in their contrasting personal characteristics, and in the particular economic situation of the areas studied suggest the need for several "packages" of interrelated and coordinated efforts linking Federal, state, and local programs to the specific problems of the areas. (DB)

1970

ED039052