The Village of Wellsburg in Chemung County’s 15th legislative district was ranked 33 out of 50 municipalities as one of the most distressed places in Upstate New York.
15th district legislator Rodney J. Strange was not happy about the ranking and said more must be done by the county to help the Village. “We must and we will do better for the residents of Wellsburg. I will work with the new County Executive and Legislature to address this situation beginning in January. They need to be recognized by county government the same as the more affluent areas of our community. Wellsburg will not be forgotten or ignored any longer by the county. The village board deserves the support and help of the county and I will work to make that happen,” Strange said.
The ranking below is from the list of top 50 distressed municipalities cited by the study.
#33 Wellsburg (14894), Chemung County
Distress score: 93.0
Population: 1330
Poverty rate: 17.6%
Adults not working: 33.2%
According to the study, the rankings were developed in the following way:
New data collected by the public policy research organization Economic Innovation Group uses seven key metrics to identify communities with low economic well-being on its “distressed communities index.” Those factors are:
- Adults without a High School Diploma
- Poverty Rate
- Prime-Age Adults Not in Work
- Housing Vacancy Rate
- Median Income Ratio
- Change in Employment
- Change in Establishments
The measures these factors in every zip code in America, and combines them to create a “distress score.” There are 50 zip codes in Upstate New York in the highest bracket of distress scores (90.0+), including many in the region’s largest cities. You can find them all below, including information about their poverty and unemployment rates.
The ranking below uses the most current 5-year-estimates from U.S. Census Bureau (2016). Each metric is weighted equally. Distress scores are generated by ranking each zip code individually for all seven metrics, then using the average of those seven rankings to create an overall index.
For this ranking, poverty rate was used to break ties in distress score. The cities and towns named below represent the most significant city or town in each zip code. They are ranked below from lowest to highest distress score, from #50 to #1.