Poverty Still on Rise in United States
September 14, 2011
The number of people in the U.S. living in poverty in 2010 rose for the fourth year in a row, representing the largest number of Americans in poverty in the 52 years since such estimates have been published by the U.S. Census Bureau, says CBS News.
- According to the Census Bureau report, 46.2 million Americans were living in poverty in 2010, up from 43.6 million in 2009.
- The nation's official poverty rate increased for the third year in a row -- 15.1 percent in 2010, up from 14.3 percent in 2009.
- Real median household income in the United States also fell in 2010, to $49,445 (a 2.3 percent drop from 2009).
Among the other findings:
- Households in the Midwest, South and West experienced declines in real median income between 2009 and 2010, while median household income in the Northeast was not statistically significant.
- In 2010, the number of families living in poverty was 9.2 million, up from 8.8 million in 2009.
- Since 2007 -- when the 2007-2009 recession began -- the poverty rate has increased by 2.6 percentage points.
- Although the 2010 rate is 7.3 percentage points lower than in 1959 when the rate was first estimated, it is its highest since 1993.
Source: David Morgan, "Poverty Continues to Rise in U.S., Now 15.1%," CBS News, September 13, 2011. "Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010," U.S. Census Bureau, September 2011.
For text:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/13/national/main20105376.shtml
For study:
http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p60-239.pdf
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