How Does Rhode Island Compare?

Although my blog will mainly befocusing on the district of North Kingstown, I will also try to relate my posts to the state of Rhode Island and the United States as a whole for comparison reasons. I believe it is important to have the ability to relate resources; specifically North Kingstown to other town districts, to see whether or not they are deemed "affordable living."

To broaden the analysis, for this post I decided to research Rhode Island resident incomes compared to the other 49 states in the country. The goal in my thought process is to see statistically where Rhode Island ranks in the United States. Based on the numbers I find, I will be able to determine whether or not affordable housing in the areas I focus on is a major issue or not.

According to the Government Census Bureau,Rhode Island is the 17th richest state in the United States. Digging deeper in the numbers, the median household income is about $42,000, and the median family income is about $56,000.

Less than 2% of Rhode Island households earn an income of over $200,000, while 12% make between $100,000 and $200,000. Most shockingly, 13% have incomes of less than $10,000 and 45% make less than $35,000.

What does this mean? From my perspective, looking at these statistics makes me think of the old saying "the rich get richer, the poor get poorer." Rhode Island is in the top half of the country in regards to how rich they are, but also has close to 50% of their residents living below the poverty line. Does this make affordable housing in Rhode Island difficult? Absolutely. Impossible? Definitely not. My next blog post will focus a little more on "what makes a home affordable."