Lastly, the correlation between residents below the poverty level and AIDS rates of Onondaga County were calculated. The poverty line, or poverty threshold, varies depending upon the number of household inhabitants. To view the poverty threshold levels in the United States, click here1 (p. 6). This statistic, being nearly the opposite of the median income of a household, would be expected to have the exact opposite correlation. To begin with, the correlation of whites below the poverty line and the AIDS rates of that zip code were found. A strong positive correlation of .802349 and .812962 for living and cumulative AIDS rates were found, respectively (p.7). This shows that it is not the presence of whites which lowers the AIDS rate of a zip code, but the economic and financial situation of the whites which affects the AIDS rate. The same correlation was found between blacks living below the poverty line, having a positive correlation of .604349 and .611816 for the living and cumulative AIDS rate, respectively (p. 8).
