Over 22K children in Philly’s suburbs are experiencing deep poverty

While national conversations about poverty have largely been focused on the country’s “inner cities” and “rural hamlets,” poverty rates in American suburbs have been increasing since the Great Recession.

Earlier this year, Philadelphia Foundation President and CEO Pedro Ramos said funders and nonprofits will soon have to start thinking about how to cap spreading poverty rates in Philadelphia’s suburban counties.

“The inner-ring suburbs of Philadelphia will eventually be feeling all the stresses we’ve often associated with the city — the so-called ‘inner city’ — over the years,” he said.

According to a series of reports being published this month by Public Citizens For Children and Youth (PCCY), “eventually” is now: The organization has found that more than 53,000 children are living in poverty across Delaware, Montgomery, Chester and Bucks counties — 7,000 more than the peak of the Great Recession.

Additionally, half of the children (22,610) are from families experiencing deep poverty.

PCCY has already published reports on Delaware and Bucks counties. According to the nonprofit, the Montgomery county report will be published this week with Chester to follow “shortly after.” The series will conclude with a report on Philadelphia county.

We’ll check back in with a wrap once the full series has been published.

(While we’re here, the Atlantic published a great piece earlier this month on the problem with conflating urban poverty and people of color.)