A study released Thursday shows that Charlotte is making up ground on economic mobility as the region has moved from No. 50 to 38 in the rankings of how likely the lowest-income children are to rise out of poverty.
Opportunity Insights, led by Harvard economist Raj Chetty, published "Changing Opportunity: Sociological Mechanisms Underlying Growing Class Gaps and Shrinking Race Gaps in Economic Mobility" a decade after the original study that ranked Charlotte last.
The rankings are based on the ability of children from low-income families to rise up the income ladder. The study noted that Mecklenburg County was the only county where low-income white children showed no decline in economic mobility over time.
When it was released in 2014, the original Chetty study shocked Charlotte. Although the South as a whole ranked poorly for economic mobility — largely a result of segregation — the Charlotte region came in dead last among the 50 largest metro areas.
Put simply: A child born into the lowest income tier had less chance of rising out of poverty in Charlotte than in any other major metro. It was a conclusion directly opposed to Charlotte's self-conception as a welcoming, New South city of opportunity.
The new data from Chetty's group doesn't compare outcomes in Charlotte since the original study and all of the city's investments in economic mobility over the past decade. Rather, while the original study looked at children born in the late 1970s and early 1980s as they grew up, the new study looked at children born more than a dozen years later, in 1992. The updated study, and the updated 38th-place ranking for Charlotte, reflect those snapshots and how those two groups of children fared over time.
"By 1992, mobility improved substantially in Charlotte, nearly reaching the national average due to improved outcomes for low-income Black residents and stable outcomes for low-income white residents," the authors wrote.
Among the 50 cities in the study, Charlotte was ranked third out of 50 for its progress with economic mobility. Since the original study's release, Charlotte has started hundreds of millions of dollars worth of public-private partnerships to try and improve its ranking.
Some partnerships included the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council's Executives in Residence program, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles' $250 million Racial Equity Initiative and the Housing Trust Fund that jumped from $15 million in funding to $50 million every two years.
Leading on Opportunity Executive Director Sherri Chisolm said the moment is worth celebrating for the city, but the job isn’t done when it comes to improvements in Charlotte.
“What I try to remind folks is that economic mobility is a muscle. So something that we need to continue to work on,” Chisholm said. “So just as we were 50, we're now 38, things could change again … We have seen progress and there's still so much more to be done.”
Leading on Opportunity's Director of Research + Impact AJ Calhoun said one of the key things the study showed is the importance of approaching problems through a "dual-generational" lens.
“So not just focusing on parents, not just focusing on children, but focusing on parents and children together,” Calhoun said. “The actions taken for the parents impact the children and vice versa.”
Chetty’s study also highlighted the dire need for policies, the importance of social capital and continuing investment. Chisholm said she hopes the city continues to make investments in long-term policies.
“So again, pre-K at the county, the 2040 Plan at the city are great examples of that,” Chisholm said. “As we continue to move forward, it's to continue funding programs that also consider what policy we can put in place so that we're not back in this situation again.”
