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University of Wisconsin–Madison
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty

Marriage, Income and Poverty

Fewer marriages, fewer jobs: what’s contributing to poverty?, By Katie Leslie, October 27, 2011, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Losing a job is a quick and certain path to economic distress, as all too many Georgians have learned in recent years. But new census data highlight another, deeper-seated trend with profound implications for the long-term prosperity of middle-class families: the disappearance of marriage as a norm, especially among those who have children. In Georgia, from 2008 to 2010, the poverty rate was higher among single women raising children than among the unemployed — 39 percent vs. 31 percent — according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of 3-year census estimates released Thursday…”