Record 46.2 Million Americans Live in Poverty

Record 46.2 Million Americans Live in Poverty, Census Bureau Says

"At the same time, analysts say other factors understate the real
level of poverty in the U.S. Many more young adults have stayed or
moved back home because they can’t find jobs, and others have doubled
up with friends and relatives. Moreover, experts agree that the
poverty thresholds, designed in the early 1960s, doesn’t capture
people’s spending and living needs in today’s economy."

Los Angeles Times
September 13, 2011
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/09/record-462-million-americans-in-poverty-census-bureau-says.html


Record 46.2 Million Americans Live in Poverty, Census Bureau Says

by Don Lee

High joblessness and the weak economic recovery pushed the ranks of
the poor in the U.S. to 46.2 million in 2010 -- the fourth straight
increase and the largest number of people living in poverty since
record-keeping began 52 years ago, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

The share of all people in the U.S. who fell below the poverty line
rose to 15.1% last year from 14.3% in 2009. That matched the poverty
rate reached in 1993 before falling steadily to 11.3% in 2000. Since
then the poverty rate has risen, accelerating after the recession
began in late 2007, and is now approaching levels not seen since
Lyndon B. Johnson launched the War on Poverty in 1965.

Last year the share of children under 18 living in poverty jumped to
22%, from 20.7% the previous year.

The Census Bureau’s report also showed an increase in the number of
people without healthcare coverage rose to 49.9 million last year from
49 million in 2009, though the percentage of uninsured was
statistically unchanged. And there was a further erosion of incomes at
the middle of the middle class.

Inflation-adjusted median household income in the U.S. fell 2.3% in
2010 from a year ago, to $49,445.

Taken together, the data all point to the severe and widespread
financial strains of a nation in the throes of an economic crisis. And
the report, coming shortly after President Obama’s proposed package of
$447 billion in tax cuts and spending to revive job growth and the
recovery, is almost certain to intensify the debate over the
government’s role in helping the poor and unemployed at a time of
budget deficits and painful cutbacks in public services. Extended
federal unemployment benefits, for example, helped some people rise
above the poverty line.

Analysts had widely expected the poverty rate for last year to edge
higher, given that the nation’s unemployment rate averaged 9.6% in
2010 compared with 9.3% the previous year. The latest jobless figure,
for August, was 9.1%.

By the Census Bureau’s latest measure, the poverty threshold last year
was an income of $11,139 for one person and $22,314 for a family of
four.

The government’s official poverty rate doesn’t count food-stamp
benefits and low-income tax credits as income. If those programs,
which totaled about $150 billion last year, were included, many more
people would have been counted as being above the poverty line.

At the same time, analysts say other factors understate the real level
of poverty in the U.S. Many more young adults have stayed or moved
back home because they can’t find jobs, and others have doubled up
with friends and relatives. Moreover, experts agree that the poverty
thresholds, designed in the early 1960s, doesn’t capture people’s
spending and living needs in today’s economy.

***

Census: US Poverty Rate Swells to Nearly 1 in 6

The Associated Press via Google News
September 13, 2011
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gFaWVNgKNKz6TVHRLhSJVGLvOosQ?docId=d10a4a8cc0d147b2a2ccab1a4d9b7b22


Census: US Poverty Rate Swells to Nearly 1 in 6

by Hope Yen

WASHINGTON (AP) — The ranks of the nation's poor swelled to nearly 1
in 6 people last year, reaching a new high as long-term unemployment
woes left millions of Americans struggling and out of work. The number
of uninsured edged up to 49.9 million, the biggest in over two
decades.

The Census Bureau's annual report released Tuesday offers a snapshot
of the economic well-being of U.S. households for 2010, when
joblessness hovered above 9 percent for a second year. It comes at a
politically sensitive time for President Barack Obama, who has
acknowledged in the midst of a re-election fight that the unemployment
rate could persist at high levels through next year.

The overall poverty rate climbed to 15.1 percent, or 46.2 million, up
from 14.3 percent in 2009.

Reflecting the lingering impact of the recession, the U.S. poverty
rate from 2007-2010 has now risen faster than any three-year period
since the early 1980s, when a crippling energy crisis amid government
cutbacks contributed to inflation, spiraling interest rates and
unemployment.

Measured by total numbers, the 46 million now living in poverty is the
largest on record dating back to when the census began tracking
poverty in 1959. Based on percentages, it tied the poverty level in
1993 and was the highest since 1983.

Broken down by state, Mississippi had the highest share of poor
people, at 22.7 percent, according to rough calculations by the Census
Bureau. It was followed by Louisiana, the District of Columbia,
Georgia, New Mexico and Arizona. On the other end of the scale, New
Hampshire had the lowest share, at 6.6 percent.

The share of Americans without health coverage rose from 16.1 percent
to 16.3 percent — or 49.9 million people — after the Census Bureau
made revisions to numbers of the uninsured. That is due mostly because
of continued losses of employer-provided health insurance in the
weakened economy.

Congress passed a health overhaul last year to address rising numbers
of the uninsured. While the main provisions don't take effect until
2014, one aspect taking effect in late 2010 allowed young adults 26
and younger to be covered under their parents' health insurance.

Brett O'Hara, chief of the Health and Disability Statistics branch at
the Census Bureau, noted that the uninsured rate declined — from 29.3
percent to 27.2 percent — for adults ages 18 to 24 compared to some
other age groups.

The median — or midpoint — household income was $49,445, down 2.3
percent from 2009.

Bruce Meyer, a public policy professor at the University of Chicago,
cautioned that the worst may yet to come in poverty levels, citing in
part continued rising demand for food stamps this year as well as
"staggeringly high" numbers in those unemployed for more than 26
weeks. He noted that more than 6 million people now represent the
so-called long-term unemployed, who are more likely to fall into
poverty, accounting for than two out of five currently out of work.

Other census findings:

* Poverty rose among all race and ethnic groups except Asians. The
number of Hispanics in poverty increased from 25.3 percent to 26.6
percent; for blacks it increased from 25.8 percent to 27.4 percent,
and Asians it was flat at 12.1 percent. The number of whites in
poverty rose from 9.4 percent to 9.9 percent.

* Child poverty rose from 20.7 percent to 22 percent.

* Poverty among people 65 and older was statistically unchanged at 9
percent, after hitting a record low of 8.9 percent in 2009.

***

Rate of Poverty in U.S. Is Highest Since 1993, Census Says

The New York Times
September 13, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/us/14census.html


Rate of Poverty in U.S. Is Highest Since 1993, Census Says

by Sabrina Tavernise

WASHINGTON — The portion of Americans living in poverty last year rose
to the highest level since 1993, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday,
fresh evidence that the sluggish economic recovery has done nothing
for the country’s poorest citizens.

And in new evidence of economic distress among the middle class, real
median household incomes declined by 2.3 percent in 2010 from the
previous year, to $49,400.

An additional 2.6 million people slipped below the poverty line in
2010, census officials said, making 56.2 million people in poverty in
the United States, the highest number in the 52 years the Census
Bureau has been tracking it, said Trudi Renwick, chief of the Poverty
Statistic Branch at the Census Bureau. That represented 15.1 percent
of the country.

The poverty line in 2010 was at $22,113 for a family of four.

“The figures we are releasing today are important,” said Robert
Groves, the director of the Census Bureau. “They tell us how changing
economic conditions have impacted Americans and their families.”

According to the Census figures, the median annual income for a male
full-time, year-round worker in 2010 — $47,715 — was virtually
unchanged from its level in 1973, when the level was $49,065, in 2010
dollars.

“That’s not about the poor and unemployed, that’s full time, year
round,” said Sheldon Danziger, professor of public policy at the
University of Michigan. Particularly hard hit, Professor Danziger
said, have been those who do not have college degrees. “The median,
full-time male worker has made no progress on average.”

The youngest members of households — those ages 15 to 24 — lost out
the most, with their median income dropping by 9 percent. The
recession continued to push Americans to double up in households with
friends and relatives, especially those aged 25 to 34, a group that
experienced a 25 percent rise in the period between 2007, when the
recession began and 2011. Of that group, 45.3 percent were living
below the poverty line, when their parents incomes were not taken into
account.