Food Insecurity by Socioeconomic Status & Geography

New York Finger Lakes Region

The chart below shows that at any given level of socioeconomic status, urban ZIP codes have the highest rates of food insecurity. For example, SES 1 ZIP codes that are urban have overall food insecurity rate of 28 percent compared to 18 percent and 13 percent for the lowest SES suburban and rural areas. This data suggests that while socioeconomic status is a strong predictor of food insecurity, there are additional factors that hinder access to adequate nutritious food in the urban environment.

 

Methodology note: The SES index ranking was developed by Common Ground Health and calculated using a variety of socioeconomic indicators from the American Community Survey including average income, poverty rates, education levels, housing value, and homeownership. Each ZIP code is assigned a socioeconomic (SES) index ranking from 1 to 5. The lower SES ZIP codes tend to have lower average income, higher poverty rates, lower prevalence of college degrees, etc.

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