SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio has the third-highest poverty rate among metropolitan areas in the United States, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2023 and 2024.
The city’s current poverty rate stands at approximately 13%, ranking only below Houston and Detroit, and surpassing both the state and national averages.
David Vequis, a professor of management at Incarnate Word’s business school, said, “Well, there’s, there’s several reasons for it.”
He attributed the high poverty rate to factors such as average age and wages, but emphasized a lack of skilled workers as a primary reason.
“Overall…in terms of the total population of San Antonio, we don’t have enough people in the degrees or the areas of the skill sets that are needed to attract high wage employers,” Vequis said.
Vequis also highlighted tourism as a major contributor to San Antonio’s revenue, noting that the city has a higher percentage of its GDP in tourism compared to other cities.
“Compared to a place like New York or Houston or Dallas, which routinely have about 3% of their total GDP in the tourism area, we’re at closer to 14%,” he said.
This reliance on tourism results in more jobs in hospitality, which typically do not pay enough.
Despite a reduction in the poverty rate from 2023 to 2024, questions remain about potential solutions. Vequis suggested that creating a critical mass of young professionals could attract employers and increase wages. “If we create the critical mass of young professionals…then what will happen is, then the employers will come here and be wanting to open up facilities, and wages will go up,” he said.
News 4 San Antonio reached out to the city’s Human Services Department for potential solutions but did not receive a response.