During the time I’ve worked at Colgate, I’ve heard a frequent assumption about Madison County from our students: that Madison County is the poorest county in New York State. There are a lot of ways we can measure poverty, but according to the most common measures, Madison County is NOT the poorest county in the state. In fact, it’s pretty average, both for New York and for the United States. The median household income for Madison County is $53,589, which is just a bit higher than the median income for all U.S. households ($53,046) and a bit lower than the median income for all New York households ($58,003). Similarly, the poverty rate for Madison County is 11.3%, which is 4 percentage points lower than the poverty rate for New York (15.3%) and quite a bit lower than the poverty rate for the entire U.S. population (14.5%). See the U.S. Census Bureau’s QuickFacts site for more information.
That’s not to say that there is no poverty in Madison County—wealthier villages in the county like Hamilton and Cazenovia tend to shift some of these numbers, masking the struggles facing many of those in our county with fewer resources. As a comparison, we can take a look at our neighbor just to the south, Chenango County, which has a much lower median household income ($43,941) and a higher poverty rate (15.3%). So, yes, there is poverty in our region, but please stop saying that Madison County is the poorest place in our state, as it’s just not true.
