Poverty also has shown to be on the rise in Seattle suburbs. Last year, Brookings Institution researchers using the federal benchmark for poverty from 2010, which for a family of four was an annual income of $22,300, found that two out of three Seattle-metro-area residents who were at or below the poverty line were living in the suburbs.
In fact, the number of poor people in the suburbs increased by 80 percent between 2000 and 2011 — with much of that growth concentrated in the cities south of Seattle.
The rate outpaced the nation’s and ranked the Puget Sound region as the 23rd fastest growing for suburban poverty among the largest 100 metro areas.
At the same time, in the core cities of Seattle, Everett and Tacoma, poverty grew by 31 percent.