Indiana has the third lowest poverty rate in the country, according to the United States. According to World Vision, poverty is defined as lack of access to basic necessities, such as food, clothing and housing. The term can also be applied to those whose conditions prevent them from obtaining education, medical aid or stable employment due to lack of money. In the United States, the government sets poverty thresholds and guidelines each year to indicate the income that an individual or family needs to meet their basic needs.
These measures are based on the Consumer Price Index, which measures the costs of goods and services. Poverty patterns do not consider regional differences in the cost of living. Therefore, the experience of poverty can vary widely from state to state. For states with the highest incidents of poverty, education is lower, health outcomes are worse, and life expectancy is shorter than in richer states.
Not surprisingly, the country's poorest states also tend to rank lowest in quality of life metrics and are often ranked as the worst states to live in. To improve the prospects of their residents, these states require greater investment in education, measures to combat income inequality, and additional safety nets, such as unemployment insurance. As a Quaker organization, the FCNL seeks to eliminate poverty at home and abroad through economic policies that expand opportunities for all people. Quakers and their friends are changing public policy.
This may be the case in Indiana's three high-poverty counties, as each of them is home to universities (Ball State, Indiana University, Indiana Wesleyan and Taylor). But Andrew Bradley, senior policy analyst at the nonprofit Indiana Institute for Working Families and the report's principal investigator, said that Indiana's economy has some positive aspects.
