The poverty rate among people of color in Greater Washington is on the decline, but the wage gap between white workers and Black and brown adults is widening.
That’s according to a report from Brookings Metro released Tuesday that examines inclusive growth in the country’s urban centers, with a particular focus on tracking the wealth gap between white residents and people of color. This year’s annual Metro Monitor report found that overall prosperity in the D.C. region remains low but highlights a few points of progress.
Matched up against 53 other urban areas with populations over 1 million, the D.C. region ranked No. 40 on inclusive growth over a 10-year period from 2012 to 2022. That’s still in the bottom half but it’s an improvement from what Brookings researcher and report author Glencora Haskins called the region’s “abysmal” performance on that metric in last year’s report.
Brookings’ 2023 analysis — which compared 2011 data to 2021 — ranked this market dead last on inclusive growth, which tracks poverty rates, employment rates and median earnings. The latest results were boosted by a drop in the poverty rate among people of color, from 33.8 in 2012 to 29.1% in 2022. The poverty rate fell sharpest among Hispanic residents, from 43.5% to 35.1%, but also declined for Black, Asian and white households.
