U.S. Poverty Rate Hits 14.3%; 44 Million Are Poor

The morning the Census Bureau released the poverty rate for 2009 and explained what it means for the unemployed and underemployed, as well as families with children and seniors living near the poverty line (a measly $21,954 for a family of four in 2009). Not surprisingly, Bureau officials explained that this recession is causing larger demographic changes than any in history. Read more in the report, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2009.

The biggest news is the latest poverty rate figure: 14.3 percent, which means one in seven Americans are currently living in poverty. This up from 13.2 percent in 2008, with more than 3.7 million more Americans crossing the poverty threshold in the last year. Admittedly, the new poverty rate is a bit below the 15 percent projections many had been making, but it's still the highest rate since 1994. Moreover, the 43.6 million people living in poverty is the largest number of poor people in the United States in the 51 years that records have been kept. The poverty rate rose for every ethnic group except for Asian Americans.

The children's poverty rate rose to 20.7 percent, up from 19 percent from 2008. About 8.4 percent of young adults ages 25-34 live with their parents according to the Census data, which skews the actual percentage of young adults in poverty. While their current poverty rate is 8.5 percent, officials stated that the rate would be significantly different if so many were not back under their parents' roofs.

Seniors in poverty were statistically unchanged this year at 9.7 percent. Fewer senior citizens are below the poverty line, though, thanks mainly to increased Social Security benefits. That doesn't mean that many don't continue to go to great extremes to stave off homelessness and are not often toeing the out-of-date cut-off line that marks where poverty theoretically begins and ends.

The portion of the population without health insurance also rose from 15.4 percent to 16.7 percent this year — 50.7 million Americans are without health coverage, up from 46.3 million in 2008 — which is unsurprising considering many underemployed part-time and laid-off workers previously relied on health insurance from their employers. A full 26.6 percent of those living below the $25,000/year income mark are currently uninsured. This marks the first year that health care coverage has decreased since the government began keeping records in 1987. Reform can't come soon enough, huh?

Photo credit: Shahnawaz Sid