Wilmington, Delaware
Although it is the state’s largest city, Wilmington is also one of the state’s poorest. More than a quarter of Wilmington people live in poverty, and the average household income is a little more than $45,000 per year. That could be one of the reasons why crime is outpacing police spending at an alarming rate. According to the nonprofit Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Wilmington’s crime rate has increased by 148 percent since the mid-1990s, while police spending has only increased by 65 percent during the same period. Residents are not required to travel far in order to find better. Only ten miles to the west, the community of Pike Creek was once named one of the country’s top 100 places to live by Money magazine, which is now defunct.
Wilmington, Delaware
Huron, South Dakota
Recent years have seen an influx of refugees to this meatpacking town in Beadle County in South Dakota, drawn by job opportunities in Huron’s turkey processing plant. Huron is a small town with a population of about 2,000 people. Prior to the construction of the facility, Huron’s population had decreased from 14,000 in 1970 to 12,000 in 2005. When it comes to jobs, there is plenty of opportunities — the unemployment rate is only 1.3% — but there isn’t much else to do in this town, and the median wage for a meatpacker is less than $14 an hour. Although the median household income in Huron County is $46,106, one-fifth of the county’s residents live below the poverty line.
Huron, South Dakota