Community Snapshot
These 106 counties hold the wealthy, diverse suburbs of most major cities and they have come to take on many of those big city characteristics.
Roughly 69 million people live in these dense close-in suburban areas and over the past 20 years they have changed dramatically. They are still the wealthiest and best educated of all the types in the American Communities Project (ACP) – average median household income of about $67,800 and 37.2% of adults with a bachelor’s degree. But these communities have also experienced the growth and racial diversification of their big city neighbors. As they grow more dense and urban, they are seeing growing poverty rates as well. Currently 15% of children here live in poverty and 46% are eligible for reduced price school lunch. And as these changes have remade the Urban Suburbs, they have become decidedly more Democratic in their politics. They have voted for the Democrat in every presidential election since 2000.