As we began looking into data at the county level for the Studer Community Institute's Pensacola Metro Dashboard, Dr. Rick Harper and his team offered us at the Census tract level to help profile our community.

Census tracts are smaller than ZIP codes and offer a detailed analytical look at a community that is nearly block-by-block.

The full report of the details are yet to come, but Rick mentioned one thing that stood out to him — and it ought to make us all pause.

There are 71 Census tracts in Escambia County. In 16 of those tracts, 15 percent or more of the households live below the poverty level with at least one child at home.

Santa Rosa County has none. None of the 25 Census tracts in Santa Rosa County have households where more than 15 percent of the population lives in poverty with a child.

There are only two Census tracts where that rate tops 10 percent.

In Escambia County, the poorest Census tract has 39 percent of residents living in poverty with a child in the house. Three others have rates that are 21 percent or higher.

As we continue researching, we'll see what else the data reveals, but these pockets of deep poverty are an issue that the Pensacola community cannot ignore.