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Facts About U.S. Poverty
-
The three most common reasons people fall into situational poverty are
illness, divorce, and job loss.Learn more about
generational and situational
poverty
- About 39.8 million Americans were living in poverty in 2008, up from
37.3 million in 2007. This number is more than the entire population of Canada.
- The data for 2008 are in and the numbers tell a troubling story: Children represent 25 percent
of the population, yet:
41 percent of all children live in low-income families.
19 percent--14 million--live in poor families.
Today children are nearly twice as likely as adults aged 65 and older to live in poor families.
--National Center for Children in Poverty, 2009
- 15.6 million people in the U.S. live at half the poverty level, in what is qualified as “extreme poverty.”
- Two-thirds of people living in poverty work more than one job in order to make ends meet.
- Of the 25 richest industrialized nations, the United States has the highest childhood poverty rate second only to Mexico.
- Forty percent of the poor are children, elderly or disabled.
- Less than 60 percent of eligible children are served by Head Start, the national school readiness program for children from low-income families.
- Welfare accounts for only 1 percent of the federal budget and 2 percent of the state budget.
- Persons likely to be on welfare longer than the average time had less than 12 years of education.
- The average family accessing welfare services is no bigger than the average family not accessing welfare
. - 13 million children in America live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level.
- 5 million children in America live in families with incomes of less than half the national poverty level.
- In 2004, almost 12 percent (more than one in eight) of American households with children under 18 were food-insecure—meaning they were not able to access enough food to meet basic nutritional needs.
- U.S. poverty rate hits 11-year high as recession bites. Read the whole story on Reuters. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. poverty rate hit its highest level in 11 years in 2008 as the worst recession since the Great Depression threw millions of Americans out of work, a government report showed on Thursday. The Census Bureau said the poverty rate -- the percentage of people living in poverty -- jumped to 13.2 percent, the highest level since 1997, from 12.5 percent in 2007.
