Population Living in Poverty [Washington (State)]
State of Washington Geospatial Open Data Portal · 2025 Full Details
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Full Details
- Title
- Population Living in Poverty [Washington (State)]
- Description
- This data is included as part of the Environmental Health Disparities Version 3.0 map. To see this map, visit our webpage . For more technical information on this map and the model used, visit our technical report (link). Background Economic status affects many areas of life, including nutrition, jobs, housing, and access to health care. Due to social patterns and systems of inequity, people do not all have equal economic opportunities. This means the health risks associated with low income are disproportionately borne by groups already facing oppression and racism. Stress from economic instability places people at increased risk of poor mental and physical health. People may also struggle to afford health care or may avoid seeking it due to cost. This can make existing health problems worse. People with less financial resources may also not have access to safe housing. This increases the risk of exposure to environmental hazards. Communities with less access to financial resources are more likely to be exposed to pollution. Increased air pollution increases the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular issues such as asthma and heart attacks. Children are more sensitive to increased exposure due to their developing immune systems and organs. Evidence Due to structural racism and practices that favor those who already have wealth, income disparity disproportionately impacts historically minoritized communities [1]. Communities with fewer financial resources have higher rates of chronic diseases [2]. This increases the risk of health problems from pollution exposure for people with fewer financial resources [3]. For example, people in areas with fewer financial resources are at a higher risk of dying from short-term exposure to particulate matter in the air [4]. Children in these areas are also more likely to develop asthma due to traffic-related pollution [5]. Data Source American Community Survey 5-year estimates, S1701 : Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months Methods The U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) asks respondents detailed questions on social and economic topics. This measure was developed using census tract-level poverty data from the ACS's 5-year estimates. This measure shows the percentage of the people living in household with an income at or below 185% of the federal poverty level over the past year. The federal poverty level varies depending on household size. Income is calculated before taxes. See How the Census Bureau Measures Poverty for more information on how poverty was measured. For more information on how ACS data is collected and processed, refer to ACS General Data Users Handbooks . Data Source Variables Used Calculations Performed* ACS 5-year, S1701 : Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months S1701_C01_041, S1701_C01_001 # Individuals with Household Income Below 185% FPL: S1701_C01_041 # Individuals with known poverty status: S1701_C01_001 % Individuals with Household Income Below 185% FPL: S1701_C01_041 / S1701_C01_001 * For margin of error (MOE) calculations, refer to U.S. Census Bureau, A Compass for Understanding and Using American Community Survey Data Appendix 1 . For MOEs in which we derived either the numerator or denominator of a proportion from multiple ACS variables, see "Calculating MOEs for Aggregated Count Data." For MOEs derived from proportions, see "Calculating MOEs for Derived Proportions." The data table shows the estimate for this variable minus the MOE (lower ME) and the estimate plus the MOE (upper ME). Caveats The ACS is known to undercount some populations. This includes young children who live with more than one parent or guardian, people without stable housing, and households that do not conform to the nuclear family structure. Populations that are undercounted in the ACS are more likely to have less financial opportunities. The definition of income used for this measure does not reflect noncash benefits. These include food stamps, health care, and housing assistance. Because it only includes monetary income, it may not reflect how communities define their income, such as traditional Indigenous definitions of wealth. The margin of error shows how much uncertainty there is about whether the survey data accurately represents the full population. The confidence interval is the estimate plus or minus the margin of error. There is a 90 percent probability that the true population value is within the confidence interval, after accounting for sampling variability. All survey data have some margin of error due to sampling variability. Results from smaller populations are less reliable because of their smaller sample sizes, leading to a larger margin of error. Counts for American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander populations are known to be less reliable. The survey design attempts to address these issues through increased sampling rates in smaller populations and on Tribal lands. The data may also have non-sampling errors, which aren't shown in the tables. These can happen if there are problems with the survey questions, if there are issues with processing or weighting the data, or if certain groups of people don't respond [6]. Individuals with a distrust for government, more concerns about privacy, and who are very busy are less likely to respond to the survey. This measure is aggregated across the census tract and does not represent each individual community within the tract. These data should always be supplemented with local data and equitable engagement for more accurate insights. ACS bundles data in one-year, three-year, or five-year groups to get more reliable results. To have census tract data on all 39 counties in Washington, we use the ACS five-year grouping. Sources Beech, B. M., Ford, C., Thorpe, R. J., Bruce, M. A., & Norris, K. C. (2021). Poverty, racism, and the public health crisis in America. Frontiers in Public Health, 9. Benavidez, G. A., Zahnd, W. E., Hung P & Eberth, J. M. (2024) Chronic Disease Prevalence in the US: Sociodemographic and Geographic Variations by Zip Code Tabulation Area. Prev Chronic Dis, 21, 230267. O'Neill, M., Jerrett, I., Kawachi, J., Levy, A., Cohen, N., Gouveia, P., et al. (2003). Health, wealth, and air pollution: Advancing theory and methods. Environmental Health Perspectives, 111(16), 1861-70. Bell, M. L., Zanobetti , A., Dominici, F. (2013). Evidence on Vulnerability and Susceptibility to Health Risks Associated With Short-Term Exposure to Particulate Matter: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, American Journal of Epidemiology, 178(6), 865-76. Kravitz-Wirtz, N., Teixeira, S., Hajat, A., Woo, B., Crowder, K., Takeuchi, D. (2018). Early-Life Air Pollution Exposure, Neighborhood Poverty, and Childhood Asthma in the United States, 1990-2014. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 15, 1114.Pickering, K. (2022, December 9). Nonresponse in census surveys [PDF]. Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee. U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. https://apps.bea.gov/fesac/meetings/2022-12-09/Pickering-FESACNonresponse-in-Census-Surveys-12092022.pdf Citation Washington Tracking Network, Washington State Department of Health. Web. "Population Living in Poverty (<=185% of Federal Poverty Level)". Data obtained from the American Community Survey, 2019-2023, S1701 : Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months Data. Published September 2025.
- Creator
- WADOH
- Publisher
- State of Washington Geospatial Open Data Portal
- Temporal Coverage
- Last Modified: 2025-07-16
- Date Issued
- 2025-07-08
- Rights
- Neither the Washington State Department of Health (WADOH), nor any agency, officer, or employee of the WADOH warrants the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of any information published by this system, nor endorses any content, viewpoints, products, or services linked from this system, and shall not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness of such information. Portions of such information may be incorrect or not current. Any person or entity who relies on any information obtained from this system does so at their own risk.
- Access Rights
- Public
- Format
- ArcGIS FeatureLayer
- Language
- English
- Date Added
- February 02, 2026
- Provenance Statement
- The metadata for this resource was last retrieved from State of Washington Geospatial Open Data Portal on 2026-02-02.
Cite and Reference
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Citation
WADOH (2025). Population Living in Poverty [Washington (State)]. State of Washington Geospatial Open Data Portal. https://geo.wa.gov/datasets/3fe4b8be4c2a478eb69eeaddee5f3f37_0 (web service) -
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