New census data released Tuesday illustrated the stark economic divide along racial lines in the District of Columbia as whites got richer while income for minorities stayed well below the national average. Nearly 80 percent of the 108,100 District residents who live below the poverty line are black, according to the figures for 2006 released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The data show the District has the second-highest poverty rate in the country at 20 percent, far above the national poverty rate of 12.3 percent. It trails only Mississippi, where 21 percent of residents are below the poverty level.

“For a long time, this has been a city divided by race, with a vast majority of the poor population being African-American,” said Ed Lazere, executive director of the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. “This great divide ... is becoming even worse, and it’s becoming even clearer that it’s one of the city’s worst problems.”

Information on median income also indicates large disparities between white and black residents. The median income for the District was $51,847. However, median income for white residents was $88,969, while median income for blacks was $34,484.

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If recent trends continue, this disparity will continue to grow. Median income for whites has grown by 10 percent since 2004, while black income growth has been stagnant.

“It certainly suggests that the city needs to be going the extra mile to reach out to [poor black] residents,” Lazere said.

Outside Washington, median incomes were among the highest in the country, while poverty rates were well below the national average.

In Virginia, Fairfax County had a median income of $100,318, the highest in the nation and the first time a county has broken the six-figure mark. It was followed by Loudoun County, where median income was $99,371.

Median incomes in Montgomery County reached $87,624 in 2006, the seventh-highest in the country. Only 4 percent of county residents live below the poverty line, the Census Bureau found. William Frey, a demographer at The Brookings Institute, said the Washington region’s median income ranks second only to Silicon Valley’s.

“It’s only a matter of time until Washington is No. 1,” he said.

dfrancis@dcexaminer.com

dlevitz@dcexaminer.com

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