Oh, Miami. Where those with untold riches and a taste for unabashed luxury live in the same community as those suffering from crippling poverty.
As another reminder of that fact, new data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau finds that the Miami metro area has the second highest rate of food stamp usage of any major metro in the entire country.
The numbers come from 2012, and show that 17.5 percent of the total population of the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Pompano Beach metro are received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Only Detroit, where 18.5 percent of the population used SNAP benefits, came in higher. Portland, somewhat surpassingly, was a close third place with 17.4 percent of the population using food stamps during at least one point of 2012.
San Francisco had the lowest rate, with only 5.8 percent of the population using SNAP benefits. San Diego was second to last with just 6.4 percent of the population on food stamps.
On the state level, 15.2 percent of Floridians received food benefits in 2012. That rate shrunk slightly to 15.1 percent in 2013. That's up significantly higher than the 5.2 percent of Floridians using SNAP benefits in 2000. Florida saw the third highest rise in people on benefits between 2000 and 2013.
That national rate is 13.5 percent.
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