- Poverty rate rose sharply in 2009, says Census Bureau, By Erik Eckholm, September 16, 2010, New York Times: “Forty-four million people in the United States, or one in seven residents, lived in poverty in 2009, an increase of 4 million from the year before, the Census Bureau reported on Thursday. The poverty rate climbed to 14.3 percent – the highest level since 1994 – from 13.2 percent in 2008. The rise was steepest for children, with one in five residents under 18 living below the official poverty line, the bureau said. The report provides the most detailed picture yet of the impact of the recession and unemployment on incomes, especially at the bottom of the scale. It also suggested that the temporary increases in benefits in aid provided in last year’s stimulus bill eased the burdens on millions of families. For a single adult in 2009, the poverty line was $10,830 in pretax cash income; for a family of four, $22,050…”
- Poverty Rate Rises to 14.3%, By Conor Dougherty, Sara Murray, and Ruth Mantell, September 16, 2010, Wall Street Journal: “Incomes for the typical U.S. household fell slightly last year as substantial government aid and such self-help actions as families doubling up and young adults moving in with their parents muted the impact of the worst recession since the 1930s, the Census Bureau said Thursday. The bureau’s annual snapshot of American living standards also found that the fraction of Americans living in poverty rose sharply to 14.3% from 13.2% in 2008, its highest level since 1994. A record 43.6 million Americans were living in poverty last year, the Census Bureau said. The new data underscore the extent to which U.S. households relied on government benefits-and each other-to weather the recession. The numbers also show how living standards at the middle of the middle class have stalled. The report comes amid a vigorous election-year debate over how government policy can best help the poor and unemployed…”
- One in seven Americans is living in poverty, Census shows, By Carol Morello, September 16, 2010, Washington Post: “One in seven Americans is living in poverty, the highest number in the half-century that the government has kept such statistics, the Census Bureau announced Thursday. Last year was the third consecutive year that the poverty rate climbed, in part because of the recession, rising from 13.2 percent in 2008 to 14.3 percent, or 43.6 million people, last year. Asians were the only ethnic group whose poverty rate did not change substantially; every other race and Hispanics experienced increases in poverty rates. In addition, 51 million Americans were uninsured, as the number of people with health insurance dropped from 255 million to less than 254 million — the first decrease since the government started keeping track in 1987. The number would have been worse because 6.5 million fewer people got insurance through their jobs, but it was offset by a leap in government-backed health insurance. More than 30 percent of Americans now get coverage from the government…”
- Census: 1 in 7 Americans live in poverty, By Hope Yen (AP), September 16, 2010, Miami Herald: “The ranks of the working-age poor climbed to the highest level since the 1960s as the recession threw millions of people out of work last year, leaving one in seven Americans in poverty. The overall poverty rate climbed to 14.3 percent, or 43.6 million people, the Census Bureau said Thursday in its annual report on the economic well-being of U.S. households. The report covers 2009, President Barack Obama’s first year in office. The poverty rate increased from 13.2 percent, or 39.8 million people, in 2008…”
- Number of uninsured Americans hits record high, By Phil Galewitz and Andrew Villegas, September 16, 2010, MSNBC.com: “In a reflection of the battered economy, the number of people without health insurance rose sharply last year to 50.7 million – an all time high – according to data released Thursday by the Census Bureau. That pushed the rate of uninsured Americans to 16.7 percent last year from 15.4 percent in 2008, when there were 46.3 million uninsured. It was one of the largest single year increases since the Census starting tracking the figure in 1987. Nearly every demographic and geographic group posted a rise in the uninsured rate-with the exception of children, who remained stable at about 10 percent. The sharpest jumps were in the Midwest and South, although all areas of the country saw increases…”
- Many say poverty rate is a poor measure, By Allison Linn, September 16, 2010, MSNBC.com: ” The latest national poverty rate data was released Thursday, and that means there’s finally one thing both liberals and conservatives can agree on: The way we measure poverty is flawed. ‘Everybody’s dissatisfied with the poverty rate, although not always for the same reasons,’ said Nicholas Eberstadt, a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. The Census Bureau said Thursday that the poverty rate hit 14.3 percent in 2009, up from 13.2 percent in 2008. That’s the highest poverty rate since 1994 and the second significant increase since 2004. The number of people living in poverty hit 43.6 million in 2009, the Census Bureau said, up from 39.8 million people in 2008. That’s the largest number of people living in poverty since recordkeeping began in 1959. The numbers are staggering, but researchers on both sides of the ideological fence argue that they don’t paint the full picture. Liberals often say the data understate the extent to which Americans are suffering to make ends meet, and some conservatives worry the data overstate the problem…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty