2018-Who is poor in Wisconsin?

Almost 11 percent (10.8%) of the Wisconsin population was poor in 2016, as measured by the Wisconsin Poverty Measure (WPM) developed by IRP researchers. The map below shows the counties in the state where the poverty rate was higher, lower, or similar to the statewide average.

Map. 2016 WPM county-level poverty rates vary substantially in relation to the overall state rate of 10.8%.
Source: Researchers’ tabulations using 2008–2016 American Community Survey data.

Wisconsin Poverty Measure Key Takeaways

• The Wisconsin poverty rate for the overall population as measured by the WPM increased to 10.8 percent in 2016, up from 9.7 percent in 2015.
• Child poverty under the WPM rose as well, to 12.0 percent in 2016, which was almost 5 percentage points below the official poverty measure’s rate for Wisconsin children of 16.9 percent.
• Elderly poverty also increased, from 7.8 percent to 9.0 percent in 2016 using the WPM.
• Although safety net benefits, especially Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP (called FoodShare in Wisconsin) and refundable tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit or EITC, continued to play an important role in poverty reduction, federal and state changes to SNAP, payroll taxes, medical expenses, and work-related expenses reduced these positive effects in 2016.
• As shown in the map below, Milwaukee County (17.5% WPM poverty rate) was the only place with a rate significantly higher than the state average of 10.8 percent.
• Meanwhile, 26 of 72 total counties have poverty rates that are significantly lower than the statewide rate, including the counties of Sheboygan (4.1%, the lowest), Fond du Lac and Calumet (4.9%), Waukesha (5.4%), and three sets of smaller counties cutting across the middle of the state with rates at or below 8.6 percent.

Poverty Rates by County or Multicounty Area

A significant strength of the WPM is its ability to portray poverty across regions within the state. In 2016, researchers found overall statewide poverty rates hide substantial variations in poverty across Wisconsin regions, as shown in Table 1.

Researchers’ categorization of substate areas includes 13 large counties and 15 multicounty areas that encompass the remaining areas of the state. While some of the multicounty areas comprise only two counties (e.g., Sauk and Columbia), others require as many as 10 of the more rural counties to reach a sufficient sample size to obtain reliable estimates.