Beginning with Tax Day, Open the Books is releasing a set of deep dives into data released by the Internal Revenue Service, synthesized with additional public datasets. These findings come straight from Uncle Sam’s own ledger.

Counties with the highest concentrations of government workers — defined as more than 1.5 times the national median of 58.9 civilian government employees per 1,000 residents — have significantly higher poverty rates, lower median incomes, and are losing residents at a significant rate. Counties with the lowest concentrations of government workers show the opposite pattern. This finding is consistent across two separate years of federal poverty and income data.

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