Study: Poor in SC Face Long Odds In Improving Their Lot in Life

One of the things American adults like to tell children is that “you can do anything” or “you can be anyone,” meaning that, regardless of where you start out, you can rise to the highest levels of your chosen field.

But a study from Harvard released this week shows that for children living in the Southeast—particularly in the area between Atlanta and Charlotte—the odds of getting out of a life of poverty are as high as they’ve ever been.

The study, the first of its kind to gather enough data to track upward mobility—long promoted as a primary benefit to living in America—shows that where someone is born has a direct effect on their chances of moving up the economic ladder. It was first reported in The New York Times.

A child raised in South Carolina in the bottom fifth of income brackets has about a five percent chance to move to the top fifth income bracket. On average, a child growing up poor in South Carolina never makes it into the middle class and, on average, stays in the bottom 35 percent of income levels. 

See a map, by metropolitan area, of upward mobility percentages here and calculate the odds a child can get out of poverty here.

In some sections of the upper Midwest, a child raised in the lowest 20 percent of income brackets has a 30 percent chance of rising to the top of the ladder—or about a six times better chance than a child in South Carolina.

In the Northeast and West Coast children are twice or three times as likely than children in the Southeast to improve their station in life.

The study’s authors said that a poor child growing up in the Southeast has less chance of economic success than a child in other industrialized nations like Canada, Australia, France, Germany and Japan. One of the study’s authors said growing up poor in the Southeast puts a child’s chances of upward mobility substantially lower than in any other rich country.

In recent years, as the gap between the rich and poor has reached levels not seen since the 1920s, public policy experts have started to look for the causes of the divide and investigate what measures can be taken to reverse the trend.

But the study’s authors say it’s a combination of factors that put children at a disadvantage. They also say that some factors thought to improve the lives of the poor actually have a negligible effect. Tax credits and proximity to local colleges have improved mobility only marginally.

Rather, researchers attributed a relationship between four broad factors to the lack of upward ability: size and dispersion of the local middle class, the absence of a two-parent household, good elementary and high schools and lack of an engaged community. Poor children who live in areas where these four factors exist are more likely to escape poverty.

Previous studies have demonstrated a correlation between these factors and a child’s current situation. But this is the first study to track long-term outcomes in depth. The study can be viewed here.