Rich cities, poor countryside? Social structure of the poor and poverty risks in urban and rural places in an affluent country

Abstract

This paper contributes to the field of regional poverty literature by using linked tax data to examine poverty in a large district in Switzerland with one million inhabitants and rural and urban parts. We measure poverty using income and asset-based approaches. Our regional comparison of the social structure of the poor shows that poor people in rural areas are more likely to be of retirement age. Among the workforce, the share of poor is larger for those who work in agriculture compared to those working in industry or the service sector. In urban areas, the poor are more often freelancers and people of foreign origin. Despite where they live, people with little education, single parents, and people working in gastronomy/tourism are disproportionately often poor. We then use a random forest based variable importance assessment to clarify whether the importance of poverty risks factors differs in urban and rural locations. It shows little regional differences among the major poverty risk factors, and it demonstrates that the opportunity structure, like density of workplaces or aggravated access in mountain areas, seem to be of minor importance compared to risk factors that relate to the immediate social situation.