Angie Newsome’s Carolina Public Press reported poverty rates for Western North Carolina counties. Rates ranged from 14 to 25% for the general population and from 25 to 33% for children.
Of course, I am too lazy to study and understand the definition of poverty and how much it has changed; or the role such factors as a growing Hispanic population, a growing number of people who derive substantial portions of their income from the government, or the number of people who live off trusts with next to no income might play.