One in seven San Diegans living in East County, approximately 14 percent of the population, lived in poverty from 2011 to 2015, according to a new report released by the Center on Policy Initiatives (CPI).
The report, released Thursday, looked at residents living in areas like Santee, El Cajon, Spring Valley and further east to the county line using census data.
Approximately 87,000 people live in the East County region.
Overall in the East County region, 35.6 percent of those 16 or older and living in poverty are employed.
The median annual pay for a full-time employee living in East County was $24,093. At the same time, $48,040 is needed just to afford the median rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in the region, according to the CPI report.
In El Cajon, the median household income of $45,925 has dropped more than $10,000 in less than a decade.
In 2015, the median household income in Spring Valley was $62,356. That is $8,284 less than it was in 2007, according to the report.
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For reference, San Diego County as a whole has 14.5 percent of their residents living under the federal poverty level.
In Santee, just 7.8 percent of residents live below the federal poverty line, according to the report.
However, in El Cajon: 24.2 percent of residents in 2015 met the poverty rate.
The report also found that children were especially likely to live in households meeting the poverty rate, especially in cities like El Cajon and Lemon Grove.
In East County, Native Americans were most likely to be living in poverty, with 23.1 percent of their residents meeting those standards.
Read the full report here.
The report defines poverty rate as the percentage of the population living below the federal poverty level. Residents living in economic hardship are those living with household incomes under 200 percent of the federal poverty level.
The report also looked at the economic hardship rate, a measure of poverty adjustable for living costs.
