Lamoni, the southern Iowa home to about 2,600 residents, is the poorest town in the state, 24/7 Wall Street found.Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, the financial website reviewed the median annual household income in every American town with a population between 1,000 and 25,000 to determine the poorest town in each state.All social and economic figures are based on five-year estimates for the period of 2012-2016, 24/7 Wall Street said."To control for potential data errors that can ...
Lamoni, the southern Iowa home to about 2,600 residents, is the poorest town in the state, 24/7 Wall Street found.
Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, the financial website reviewed the median annual household income in every American town with a population between 1,000 and 25,000 to determine the poorest town in each state.
All social and economic figures are based on five-year estimates for the period of 2012-2016, 24/7 Wall Street said.
"To control for potential data errors that can arise in low population areas, we did not consider towns where the margin of error at 90% confidence was greater than 10% of the point estimate of both median household income and population," authors Samuel Stebbins and Michael B. Sauter said. "We considered the percentage of adults who have at least a bachelor’s degree, the share with a high school diploma, the towns’ poverty rates, SNAP benefit recipiency rates, and median home value — all from the ACS."
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Lamoni was founded as a church colony in 1879 when it was platted as a town, according to the city's website. It's also home to Graceland University.
The median household income in Lamoni is $33,393 a year, 24/7 Wall Street reported. That mark is the least of any town in the state; the median household income in Iowa is $54,570.
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Additionally, Lamoni is one of only two towns in Iowa in which more than one in every four residents is below the poverty line. 24/7 Wall Street said about 26 percent of Lamoni residents live in poverty.
"In most poor towns across the United States, the share of adults with a college education is relatively small, but Lamoni is a notable exception," 24/7 Wall Street reported. "Some 32.9% of adults in the town have a bachelor’s degree, a larger share than the national college attainment rate of 30.3% and the statewide rate of 27.2%."
Last year, 24/7 Wall Street said Keokuk was the poorest town in Iowa.
You can read this year's full report here.
Poorest towns in the U.S.: