Franklin County residents are poorer, somewhat younger and have somewhat lower levels of educational attainment than the state as a whole, according to a Poverty in Maine 2003 report compiled by Maine Community Action Association.

Income and poverty rates are skewed somewhat by the presence of the student population at the University of Maine at Farmington.

As reported in the Census 2000:

• Per-capita income is 19.1 percent below the state average, and median household income is 15.5 percent below the state’s median income.

• The household poverty rate is higher than in the state as a whole. Compared with the statewide totals, a higher proportion of below-poverty households consists of family households.

• Younger people (age 18 and below) represent a somewhat higher proportion of those under poverty compared with the state as a whole.

• A lower proportion of the Franklin County population has college degrees (associate or bachelor’s) than in the state as a whole, though a higher proportion has high school degrees.

• Employment figures for Franklin are somewhat worse than state averages, and there is a higher proportion of “working poor.”

• Among households below poverty in Franklin County, 66 percent reported having one or more members working part- or full-time in the past year, compared with 61 percent statewide.

• Housing is more affordable in Franklin County than in the state as a whole. However, housing is still a problem for the poorest households, with three-quarters of households with incomes below $10,000 paying more than 35 percent of monthly income for housing.

• Franklin County residents were above the state average in participation in Department of Human Services benefits programs (including food stamps) and considerably above the state average in participation in a low-income heating emergency assistance program in Oct. 1, 2001, through Sept. 30, 2002.

• The heating program served a higher proportion of total county households and the total county population than in many other counties and the state as a whole.

• The heating program also serves a higher proportion of households with older persons. Nearly one-quarter of all county households with people age 65 or older received low-income heating program assistance benefits, compared with 13.2 percent of such households statewide.