10 Poverty Statistics You Can't Afford to Ignore

by Derrick Braziel · 2010-09-15 06:30:00 UTC
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When President Obama first came into office, he wisely blamed the recession on the Bush Administration. Bad policy here, tax cut there and voilá — the Great Recession. He's finding that it's easier to get into a recession than out of one, though.

We are now awaiting new poverty data from the Census Bureau, and the Obama Administration will have to answer some tough questions concerning the progress of its economic policies. Here are 10 recent poverty statistics that are making his job more difficult than ever.

1.) The number of Americans in poverty is on pace for a record increase this year. Demographers expect the poverty rate to increase from 13.2 percent to about 15 percent, the highest number since the U.S. government began calculating poverty figures in 1959.

2.) The U.S. poverty rate is now third worst among the developed nations tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

3.) According to some estimates, the United States has lost eight million jobs since 2007.

4.) For the first time in U.S. history, 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million in 2011.

5.) An estimated 45 million Americans lived in poverty in 2009.

6.) About 81 percent of American adults know someone who is looking for a job and 28 percent of all U.S. households have at least one member that is looking for a full-time job.

7.) More than six million people have been out of work for 27 weeks or more.

8.) More than 25 percent of adults have abysmal credit scores.

9.) Approximately 19 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line.

10.) One out of every six Americans is now being served by at least one government anti-poverty program.

These statistics should be chilling for all Americans. President Obama once said that he didn't "care whether you're driving a hybrid or an SUV," because "if you're headed for a cliff, you have to change direction." Judging from these statistics, it looks as though our safety net is dangerously close to that cliff.

Photo credit: Poster Boy NYC

Derrick Braziel works as a development fellow at a nonprofit organization in Indianapolis.
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