> I can't see how you get a rate that high unless it was easy to qualify for disability.
Poverty tends to be a very unhealthy situation - it leads to a poor diet, you skip medical treatment for initially small issues, jobs available are more likely to be of the sort that cause back and joint pain.
Now add in the fact that disabled folks need to live in cheaper, low cost-of-living areas, and you'll get big concentrations.
Poor people don't move because they lack funds to do so. It's one of the big problems in the US that hits the fixed income people who live in high expense areas. Access to healthcare for the poor is a lot better than in it was in 2005 because of Obamacare that expanded medicaid yet disability rate is at an all-time high. Indicators for health care access like high cholesterol levels and untreated cavities is at a 20 year low.
Poverty tends to be a very unhealthy situation - it leads to a poor diet, you skip medical treatment for initially small issues, jobs available are more likely to be of the sort that cause back and joint pain.
Now add in the fact that disabled folks need to live in cheaper, low cost-of-living areas, and you'll get big concentrations.