Southern Illinois shows more signs of escalating poverty than other regions of the state, according to an annual report from a poverty watch group.

Ten counties in the region have been placed on the 2009 Report on Illinois Poverty's warning list, while seven others have been placed on its watch list.

The document, compiled each year by the Chicago-based Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human rights, examines topics including employment, teenage pregnancy, housing and high school graduation rates to capture a complete picture of Illinois' economic situation.

"Southern Illinois has always been more shaded, so to speak, on the map compared to other areas of the state," said Amy Terpstra, senior research analyst for the Heartland Alliance Mid-America Institute on Poverty. "We see some of the highest poverty rates in the state in Southern Illinois."

Franklin, Gallatin, Jefferson, Massac, Perry, Pope, Pulaski, Randolph, Saline and Union counties join 14 other Illinois counties on the 2009 poverty warning list. Alexander, Hamilton, Hardin, Jackson, Johnson, White and Williamson counties are among the 46 counties on this year's watch list.

The Heartland Alliance bases listings on the four topics above, Terpstra said. If a county has statistics higher than the state average, it is marked with one point. If a county's statistics worsened from the previous year, it's marked with another point, creating a potential scale of zero to eight points.

Counties with four or five points are added to the watch list, and those with six to eight points are placed on the warning list, she explained.

Among the findings of the report are:

l Four Southern Illinois counties top the state's list of bankruptcies per 1,000 residents. Alexander County had a rate of 7.5 bankruptcies per 1,000 residents; Pulaski County had 6.6; Franklin County had 6.1 and Williamson County had 5.4. Four Southern Illinois counties top the state's list of bankruptcies per 1,000 residents. Alexander County had a rate of 7.5 bankruptcies per 1,000 residents; Pulaski County had 6.6; Franklin County had 6.1 and Williamson County had 5.4.

l Ten Southern Illinois counties are among the top 20 for teenage pregnancy in Illinois. Pulaski, Gallatin and Alexander counties top the list, and are joined by No. 6 Union County, No. 7 Massac County, No. 10 Franklin County, No. 11 Saline County, No. 15 Randolph County, No. 16 White County and No. 19 Johnson County.

l Jackson County, home of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, has the state's highest percentage of residents renting homes, at 47 percent. Other counties with colleges, including Champaign, DeKalb and Coles counties, are also at the top of the list. A typical renter in Southern Illinois earns about $2 less per hour than necessary pay levels to afford an average two-bedroom apartment.

l Twelve Southern Illinois counties place in the top 20 for highest percentage of students eligible for free or reduced lunches. Alexander, Pulaski, Saline, Hardin, Jackson, Franklin, Pope, Massac Johnson, Jefferson, Union and Gallatin counties all rank at or higher than the state average of 47.1 percent.

l Three Southern Illinois counties are among the top 10 worst high school graduation rates in the state. Fifth-ranked Pope County has a rate of 81.8 percent, while eighth-ranked Saline County and 10th-ranked Jefferson County have rates of 82.4 and 83.1 percent, respectively.

Nicholette Dolin, community development specialist for the Illinois Coalition for Community Services, said Southern Illinois suffers from a dwindling number of employment opportunities, which impacts the poverty levels of the region.

With the state making budget cuts and eliminating services, many of those factors are taking a toll on local residents as well, Dolin said.

The geographic nature of Southern Illinois can also create inequities in funding and development, she added. With the region's population and establishment spread out over a wide territory, the region's statistical numbers don't match up to other parts of the state.

"We do kind of get looked over for some of the more densely populated areas because they can show the large numbers of people being affected," Dolin said. "We don't have the striking figures of people in one concentrated area. We're more spread out here."

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