The county with the lowest poverty rate in America last year was Falls Church, Va. — actually an independent city — where about 3 percent of residents live in poverty, according to a new data release from the Census Bureau. The highest poverty rate was in Ziebach County, S.D., where about half of residents are below the poverty line.

Between 2007, the year the recession began, and 2010, the poverty rate rose by a statistically significant amount in nearly a quarter of counties (722 of 3,142) across the country.

Median incomes were, as you might expect, pretty closely related to poverty rates. The county with the highest median income in 2010 — $119,075 — was Loudoun County, Va., which is near Falls Church in the Washington suburbs. The lowest median income was in Buffalo County, S.D., just a hop, skip and jump away from Ziebach County. In Buffalo County, the median income was $20,577.

The interactive map above shows poverty rates for all adults, for children only and for school-age children (ages 5 to 17), as well as median incomes. You can click on the map and choose one of these options from the pull-down menu in the legend, and then mouse over any county to see how it fares.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=bd2c82ca8fe6ed4264892ab6594a8862