Where your county stands...Poverty Map

Despite economic gains and recovery, poverty in North Carolina either remained the same or increased from 2007 through 2013, according to a report from the Budget & Tax Center, part of the NC Justice Center.

The report found that in 2013, poverty in North Carolina (defined as a family of four living on less than $24,000 a year), was "the most widespread it had been since before the turn of the century."

The state rate was 17.9 percent, the 11th highest in the nation, with the child poverty and deep poverty rates both the 12th highest, the report said. In Union County, the rate was 9.4 percent from 2009 through 2013, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

North Carolina's child poverty rate was 25.2 percent in 2013, an increase of 6 percentage points since 2007.

In Union County, the child poverty rate in 2013 was 15.6 percent, a 2.5 percent increase from 2011.

Based on charts in the report, Union County is one of a handful of counties with a poverty rate below 15 percent, while Anson County has a rate of 25.1 percent or higher. Anson County's child poverty rate in 2013 was 35.1 percent or higher.

WSOC