In a new white paper, CRER director Howard Wall looks at trends in the official poverty rate in the Chattanooga metro area. The paper looks at the extent to which the recent jobs boom in the Chattanooga metro area has translated into a corresponding reduction in poverty. Following the national trend, Chattanooga’s official poverty rate fell significantly between 2013 and 2023. For the working-age population, the local poverty rate fell by more than the national one, but for those younger than 18, poverty did not fall as much locally as it did nationally. Finally, a large part of the decrease in the local poverty rate was because of in-migration of people with bachelor’s degrees rather than a decrease in core poverty.