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Warren county added to poverty warning list

The non-profit Heartland Alliance has put three Illinois counties on a warning list based on a well-being index and Warren County is one of those three.

A county’s well-being index is mainly based on four factors; high school graduation rate, unemployment rate, teen birth rate and poverty rate.

County’s are scored 1 to 8, with a higher score being worse.

A well-being index score will be higher if a county’s rate in an area is worse than the previous year and if it’s worse than the state average.

Warren County was red flagged because of a 5 percent decrease in high school graduation rate, and small increases in teen birth and poverty rates.

Warren’s high school graduation, teen birth and poverty rates are all above the state average.

The well-being index isn’t everything though.

While Knox County faired better on the well-being index but their poverty rate is even more at about 17% of a population of 52,000 in 2015.

Additionally Henry and Stark counties were on the Heartland Alliance’s watchlist.

Henry County has almost 11 percent of the population in poverty but have made strides in reducing poverty and unemployment.

There appearance on the list could be explained as them making improvements in these categories but continue to lag behind the state.

While Knox County faired better on the well-being index but their poverty rate is even more at about 17% of a population of 52,000 in 2015.

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