Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington, despite being the state’s largest city, is also one of the poorest. More than a quarter of Wilmington residents live in poverty, with an average annual household income of just over $45,000. That could be one of the reasons why crime is rapidly outpacing police spending. Wilmington’s crime rate has increased by 148 percent since the mid-1990s, according to the non-profit Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, while police spending has only increased by 65 percent. Residents don’t need to travel far to find better. Pike Creek, ten miles to the west, was once named one of the top 100 places to live in the country by Money magazine, which is now defunct.
Wilmington, Delaware
Huron, South Dakota
Job opportunities in Huron’s turkey processing plant have drawn an influx of refugees to this meatpacking town in Beadle County, South Dakota, in recent years. Huron is a small town with a population of approximately 2,000 residents. Huron’s population had dropped from 14,000 in 1970 to 12,000 in 2005 before the facility was built. There are plenty of job opportunities in this town — the unemployment rate is only 1.3 percent — but there isn’t much else to do, and a meatpacker’s median wage is less than $14 an hour. Even though Huron County’s median household income is $46,106, one-fifth of the county’s residents live in poverty.
Huron, South Dakota
