The poverty rate in Muncie and other college towns in Indiana might be misrepresented, according to a recent study conducted by Ball State University's Bureau of Business Research.
Muncie's poverty rate in 2005 was 24.2 percent, but after a change in Census reporting in 2006 this statistic increased to 31.2 percent. Michael Hicks, director of the Bureau of Business Research and author of the study, said the dramatic increase was because of the U.S. Census Bureau's inclusion of residents living in "group quarters" in its report. Group quarters, as defined by the Census Bureau, includes residents of nursing homes, correctional facilities, mental institutions and college residence halls. In Muncie, this inclusion adds 6,000 people with incomes below the poverty threshold of $10,924.
"These numbers give us a very biased snapshot of the poverty problem," Hicks said. "They also misrepresent the experience of college students."
Hicks also said students living in apartments or homes in college towns skew the Census Bureau's poverty data.
According to the first of Hicks' three-part study, Muncie's poverty level in the 2000 Census was at 23.1 percent, including college students living in apartments and homes, but not residence halls. When student poverty is subtracted from the equation, the projected city poverty rate is 7.8 percent. This result is similar to that of other Indiana cities including West Lafayette, South Bend, Bloomington and Terre Haute, Hicks said.
"The problem with these inflated poverty rates is that the cities affected find it hard to attract employers to their city," Hicks said.
He also said including students in the poverty rate distracts from the larger problem of workers earning low wages.
Scott Schwieterman, a senior finance major, said he thinks students shouldn't be included in the Census' poverty projections.
"You can't compare a student working part-time to pay off student loans to a person out of school working 40 hours a week trying to pay mortgages and bills," Schwieterman said. "Students are going to school so that when they get out they don't have be in poverty."
StudyTo see this study online go to bsu.edu/Academics/CentersandInstitutes/BBR/