There are sadly many small towns in the Midwest that are struggling. However, among those, there is one in Illinois that is the poorest of them all where more than 50% of the residents live in poverty.

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This recent ranking of the poorest towns in America shared by 24/7 Wall Street shows one small Illinois place among the top 35 on the worst list ever. The town in Illinois they're talking about is Alorton. The numbers they shared are staggering in how depressing they are:

The median income they show for Alorton is $19,764 with a poverty rate of 56.8%. That is insane to imagine. The 5-year average for unemployment is just below 25%. In the population of only around 2,000 people, only 6% have a bachelor's degree or higher for education.

If you're wondering where Alorton is, it used to be known as Alcoa as Wikipedia points out. It's located in the extreme southwestern part of Illinois not far from the Mississippi River.

At the end of the day, this really shouldn't be a surprise when you're talking about the part of Illinois that involves East St. Louis.

I would love to hope that something will turn things around for the people that call Alorton, Illinois home. There just isn't any real tangible sign of that being a reality anytime in the near future unfortunately.

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