August 28, 2007
Poverty, Income, and Health Insurance trends
in 2006
By Jared
Bernstein, Elise
Gould, and Lawrence
Mishel
Reflecting the fifth year of an economic expansion, the percent of
the nation in poverty fell last year, and the income of the median
household grew (after inflation) by about $360, or just under one
percent (0.7%), according to data released today by the U.S. Bureau of
the Census. This is the second year of real income gains for the
median household, and the first significant decline in poverty since
2000.
While both poverty and income have improved over the last few years,
it is disappointing that despite low unemployment and strong
productivity growth, these measures of living standards have yet to
recover to their levels of the previous business cycle peak in 2000.
In that year poverty was 11.3%, compared to 12.3% in 2006, an increase
in the poverty rolls of 4.9 million persons, including 1.2 million
children; median household income in 2006 was $48,201, about
$1,000 dollars (-2.0 %) below its 2000 level (in 2006 dollars). In other
words, economic growth over the last six years has totally bypassed the
typical middle-class household.
Read the complete US Census Bureau report 2006
Income, Poverty and Health Insurance in
the United States: 2009
*
The data presented here are from the Current Population Survey (CPS),
2010 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC), the source of official
poverty estimates. The CPS ASEC is a sample survey of approximately 100,000
household nationwide. These data reflect conditions in calendar year
2009.
- The official poverty rate in 2009 was 14.3 percent — up from 13.2 percent in
2008. This was the second statistically significant annual increase in the
poverty rate since 2004.
- In 2009, 43.6 million people were in poverty, up from 39.8 million in 2008 —
the third consecutive annual increase in the number of people in poverty.
- Between 2008 and 2009, the poverty rate increased for non-Hispanic Whites
(from 8.6 percent to 9.4 percent), for Blacks (from 24.7 percent to 25.8
percent), and for Hispanics (from 23.2 percent to 25.3 percent). For Asians, the
2009 poverty rate (12.5 percent) was not statistically different from the 2008
poverty rate.1
- The poverty rate in 2009 (14.3 percent) was the highest poverty rate since
1994 but was 8.1 percentage points lower than the poverty rate in 1959, the
first year for which poverty estimates are available.
- The number of people in poverty in 2009 (43.6 million) is the largest number
in the 51 years for which poverty estimates have been published.
- Between 2008 and 2009, the poverty rate increased for children under the age
of 18 (from 19.0 percent to 20.7 percent) and people aged 18 to 64 (from 11.7
percent to 12.9 percent), but decreased for people aged 65 and older (from 9.7
percent to 8.9 percent). 2
Footnotes:
1 The poverty rate for Blacks was not statistically
different from that of Hispanics.
2 Since unrelated individuals under 15 are excluded from
the poverty universe, there are 460,000 fewer children in the poverty universe
than in the total civilian noninstitutionalized population.
Income, Poverty and Health Insurance in
the United States:
2008
* -
2007
* -
2006
* -
2005
* -
2004
* -
2003
*
Poverty in the United States:
2002
* -
2001
* -
2000
* -
1999 -
1998 -
1997 -
1996 -
1995 -
1994 -
1993 -
1992 -
1991 -
1990 -
1988
and 1989 -
1987 -
1986 -
1985
* -
poverty
data update
here
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