By many measures, California’s economy is doing great. State unemployment is at a record low. Nearly 3 million jobs have been created since early 2010. If California were its own country, it would have surpassed the UK earlier this year to become the world’s fifth largest economy.
But still, nearly one in five Californians live in poverty. That includes 7.5 million residents, more than in any other state. According to statistics released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau, no other state has a higher poverty rate than California’s. Only Florida and Louisiana come statistically close.
But how can so much poverty exist in such a booming economy? The long, complicated answer has to do with the federal government’s different methods for measuring poverty. The short answer? California’s high housing costs.
