Upward Mobility Data Insights
City of Philadelphia | August 2022
Introduction
From January 2021 to June 2022 the City of Philadelphia was part of the Urban Institute's Upward Mobility Cohort . As part of this project, the Urban Institute provided metrics that are signifiers of mobility from poverty, and we gathered additional data to add to those metrics. These metrics are displayed in the StoryMap below to demonstrate areas in need of focus for upward mobility from poverty in Philadelphia. We focused our data exploration on the following four domains that the Urban Institute identified as contributing to upward mobility from poverty: Financial Well-Being , Secure and Stable Housing , Neighborhoods , and Work . Click the following button to view all of the domains and mobility metrics that the Urban Institute has found indicate upward mobility from poverty.
Throughout this StoryMap, Philadelphia is compared to three peer jurisdictions on Urban's evidence-based metrics: Baltimore, Cook County (which includes Chicago and its suburbs), and Fulton County (which includes Atlanta and its suburbs).
Financial Well-Being
The domain of financial well-being contains two predictors: income and financial security. Research shows that financial well-being is critical to achieving upward mobility as it is a clear marker of economic success. The ability to support oneself and one’s family financially allows people to exert control over their lives. Financial stability of parents allows their children to grow up in a more stable environment that sets them up for success later in life.
Household Income
Notes: To identify income percentiles, all households are ranked by income from lowest to highest. The income level at the threshold between the poorest 20 percent of housholds and the richest 80 percent is the 20th percentile. Similarly, the threshold between the poorest and richest halves is the 50th percentile income (or median).
Philadelphia has a median household income of $45,619 according to 2018 Census data.
Hispanic households have the lowest household incomes of all racial groups, with incomes at $31,608 for those in the 50th percentile, and $10,386 for those in the 20th percentile.
Philadelphia Household Income at the 20th Percentile. Both City wide and per Public Use Microdata Area (PUMA)
Use the maps above and below to compare incomes in 11 different areas of the city to incomes in the city as a whole.
Southwest, West, and all areas of North Philadelphia have lower 20th & 50th percentile incomes than the city as a whole. These communities contain larger concentrations of historically disadvantaged populations.
Philadelphia Household Income at the 50th Percentile. Both City wide and per Public Use Microdata Area (PUMA)
Proportion Under 80 Percent of Area Median Income (AMI)
Percent of Households that with an income below 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI). Both City wide and per PUMA
Many of Philadelphia's housing programs are targeted at households that earn below 80 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI). AMI is the midpoint for household income in the region, meaning half of households make less and half of households make more.
About 59 percent of households in Philadelphia were earning under 80 percent of Area Median Income, with many areas in North, West, and Southwest Philadelphia having a higher proportion of households living below this threshold.
Share with Debt in Collections
Notes: The share of people in an area with a credit bureau record with debt that has progressed from being past-due to being in collections.
55% of Philadelphia residents living in zip codes that are predominantly people of color have debt in collections, versus less than a quarter of folks living in majority White, non-Hispanic zip codes (24%), indicating that Black and Brown households and communities shoulder the greatest burden of debt.
Share with Subprime Credit
Source: Tabulations of Urban Institute credit bureau data.
The percent of Philadelphia residents with a low credit score has been steadily dropping since the start of the pandemic.
In August 2021, 37 percent of communities of color had a subprime credit score while only 14 percent of majority White communities had a subprime credit score—a gap of 23 percent.
Secure and Stable Housing
The Urban Institute’s Research also shows Secure and Stable Housing to be an important component of upward mobility. Affordable and stable housing prevents people from having their lives uprooted involuntarily. Children without stable housing can experience problems that reverberate throughout their lives.
Affordable Housing
Note: This metric reports the number of available housing units affordable for housholds with low-incomes (below 80 percent of area median income, or AMI), very low-incomes (below 50 percent of AMI), and extremely low-incomes (below 30 percent of AMI) relative to every 100 housholds with these income levels. Housing units are defined as affordable if the monthly costs do not exceed 30 percent of a household's income. Values above 100 suggest that there are more affordable housing units than households with those income levels. Housing units are counted as affordable for a given income level regardless of whether they are currently occupied by a household at that income level.
For households earning 30% AMI or below, Philadelphia has about 85 units of affordable housing per 100 households. This shows that the current supply of affordable housing is gravely insufficient for extremely low-income households.
Percent of households in a census tract that own the house they live in AND percent change in the homeownership rate in the past 5 years (2014-2018 ACS)
The homeownership rate in Philadelphia has been hovering a bit over 50 percent since 2010. This is a larger share of the population than in those peer counties that the Urban Institute identified, and much higher than in bigger cities like New York.
Notes: This metric reports the share of low-income households at three income levels, low-income (below 80 percent of area median income, or AMI), very low-income (below 50 percent of AMI), and extremely low-income (below 30 percent of AMI), that spend more than half of their income on rent. Values range from 0 to 100 percent. The larger the percentage, the more severe rent burden being experienced in the jurisdiction among the specified low-income households.
Households in Philadelphia, when compared to their peer counties are paying more of their incomes on rent almost across the board.
Low-income Philadelphians are more likely to be cost burdened than low-income residents of other peer cities.
Housing Instability and Homelessness
Notes: The number homeless is based on the number of children (age 3 through 12th grade) who are enrolled in public schools and whose primary nighttime residence at any time during a school year was a shelter, transitional housing, or awaiting foster care placement; unsheltered; a hotel or motel because of the lack of alternative adequate accomodations; or in housing of other people because of loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason. The share is the percent of all public school students in those schools experiencing homelessness.
Households at Risk of Eviction, 2016
Number of Foreclosure Filings, 2016
Philadelphia’s eviction rate dropped substantially during the pandemic due to local moratoria and CDC orders. As these preventative measures expire, we once again are seeing a rise in eviction rates, though they remain below pre-pandemic averages in part due to city programs like rental assistance and eviction diversion. During 2018 and 2019, there were almost 34,000 eviction filings. In April 2022, eviction filings were 38 percent below pre-pandemic averages. Foreclosure rates follow a similar trend—on the upswing but still much lower than they were before the pandemic.
Neighborhoods
The neighborhood in which one lives, learns, and earns not only shapes one’s daily life, but it also has profound implications for wellbeing and the ability to access opportunities, especially those linked to upward mobility. We know from experience and from research that: economic exclusion and racial/ethnic segregation limit neighborhood choice and opportunity; accessible and affordable transportation allows people to accomplish daily activities and save money for other necessities; that poor neighborhood conditions can strip wealth from households by negatively affecting home equity; and environmental issues, like poor air quality, can trigger health complications that can undermine performance at school and work.
Economic Inclusion
Notes: The share of a city's residents living in poverty that live in high-poverty neighborhoods (defined as census tracts). A high-poverty neighborhood is one in which over 40 percent of the residents live in poverty.
Philadelphia has higher concentrations of poverty than comparison counties.
We find that this rate is higher among people of color: 48.8% of Hispanic and 36.9% of Black residents experiencing poverty live in high poverty areas, as well 36.7% of residents of another race or ethnicity. Comparatively, only 18.5% of White (non-Hispanic) residents experiencing poverty live in high poverty neighborhoods.
Racial Diversity
Note: This is an exposure index. For example, an exposure index of 90% in the '% for Black, Non-Hispanic' row means that the average Black, non-Hispanic resident has 90% of their neighbors within a census tract who have a different race/ethnicity than them. The higher the value, the more exposed to people of different races/ethnicities.
Only about a third of Black and White residents – Philadelphia’s largest racial groups – live near people of other races/ethnicities (30.8% and 38.6%, respectively).
Non-Hispanic Black and White populations in Philadelphia continue to be more racially and ethnically segregated than any other group. Compared to other jurisdictions, Philadelphia is either on par with or slightly less segregated, depending on the racial or ethnic group.
Environmental Quality
Notes: The number of public transit trips taken annually by a three-person single-parent family with income at 50 percent of the median income for renters. The higher the value, the more likely residents utilize public transportation in the jurisdiction.
Notes: Reflects local transportation costs as a percent of renters' incomes. It accounts for both transit and cars. This index is based on estimates of transportation costs for a family that meets the following description: a three-person, single-parent family with income at 50 percent of the median income for renters for the region. Values are inverted and percentile ranked nationally, with values ranging from 0 to 100. The higher the value, the lower the cost of transportaion in that area.
The Urban Institute’s transit trips and low transportation cost indices show that Philadelphia residents utilize public transit at higher rates relative to other jurisdictions, specifically residents living in majority people of color and diverse Census tracts.
The cost of transportation (both public transit options and cars) is also comparatively lower in Census tracts that are majority people of color.
Notes: The index is a linear combination of standardized EPA estimates of air quality carcinogenic, respiratory, and neurological hazards measured at the census tract. Values are percentile ranked nationally and range from 0 to 100. The higher the index value, the less exposure to toxins harmful to human health.
Proximity of low-income and communities of color to industrial facilities:
Note: The legend shows a demographic index that is an average of the low-income and people of color indicators. Source: https://www.epa.gov/toxics-release-inventory-tri-program
Residents in majority people of color and high poverty Census tracts experience worse air quality and are therefore disproportionately impacted by related negative health effects.
According to the EPA's map of toxic release of chemicals (potential risk score), low-income people of color are very likely to live near facilities that contribute most to the toxic release of chemicals, especially in Southwest, North, and Lower Northeast Philadelphia.
Work
Work is not just a source of income and economic security. It can also fulfill one’s need for autonomy, connection, and enrichment, but workers can remain in poverty if their jobs do not pay a living wage.
Access to Jobs Paying a Living Wage
Note: What a 'typical' job pays relative to the cost of living in a particular area. The metric is computed by dividing the average earnings for a job in an area by the cost of meeting a family of three's basic expenses in that area. Ratio values greater than 1 indicate that the typical job pays more than the cost of living.
The average job pays just enough for a family to get by, but not enough to save.
Wage growth in the city has only increased slightly over the last several years.
Note: Wage data from the BLS QCEW was inflation adjusted to 2022 dollars. The living wage used from the MIT Living Wage Calculator was that of a two-income household with 2 adults and 1 child, a very common household make up in Philadelphia. A 1.0 on the scale is the cost of living for the entire family and each bar is indicative of the average pay of one job in that industry. So, a household with two adults making the average wage in the Leisure and Hospitality industry would just barely be making a living wage. *key industries are those that employ the most people or have the largest percent growth.
Above are the two fastest growing (Information, Leisure and Hospitality) and the two largest (Education and Health Services, Professional and Business Services) industries/sectors in Philadelphia. We compared the average wage in these sectors to the cost of living in the city.
The average job in the Leisure and Hospitality sector pays just over half the cost of living. This industry, which is in the process of making a steep recovery as the pandemic recedes, largely employs residents who earn less than a living wage.
Employment
Note: Ratio of the number of employed adults between tha ages of 25 and 54 in a given jurisdiction to the total number of adults in that age range living there.
The Urban Institute’s employment metric (employment to population ratio) indicates that Philadelphia has a relatively low labor force participation rate (74.2%) among its adult residents (aged 25-54) compared to other jurisdictions.
This is a trend that holds true across racial and ethnic groups; however, Hispanic and Black (non-Hispanic) populations have lowest employment rates at 63.9% and 67.1%, respectively.
Takeaways
These metrics demonstrate the challenges that Philadelphia faces in providing opportunities for upward mobility from poverty for residents. The Kenney Administration and leaders in City Council have long recognized these challenges, and together have produced several plans over the last six years that recommend policies and programs to advance inclusive neighborhood growth, expand housing programs, create job and workforce development programs, and spur an equitable economic recovery. For this Upward Mobility project, Philadelphia chose to recommend four key strategic actions that we believe would strengthen our ability to implement the recommendations in those plans and achieve more equitable outcomes for Philadelphians: Expand and improve the City’s data management and sharing; Strengthen departmental capacity for outcomes-based evaluation of upward mobility programming; Improve the quality of equitable community engagement; and Expand benefits access, cash assistance, and departmental collaboration around service delivery. Read the full Upward Mobility Action Plan here .
