INTRO: AIDS CORRELATION IN CHICAGO
UNEMPLOYMENT
Assuming the low income and poverty levels prevalent in Chicago’s South Side projects are significant factors in the AIDS epidemic, it seemed logical to next examine the correlation between unemployment levels and AIDS rates. There is a positive correlation of 0.414 between the percent of those unemployed and the cumulative AIDS cases in Chicago (GRAPH 3). The lower the rate of unemployment: the lower the rate of cumulative cases. As the unemployment rate increases, however, its association with cumulative AIDS cases grows more ambiguous.
Uptown and its two surrounding northern wards, Lakeview and Edgewater, have incredibly high cumulative AIDS rates but not significant unemployment rates (MAP A/D) and are therefore skewing this data. Once these are removed, the correlation coefficient is strengthened, jumping from 0.414 to 0.6192. There is a much stronger relationship between higher cumulative AIDS rates and areas with higher percents of unemployment in wards not defined by a white, homosexual population (Table 5/Table 6).
