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US Poverty Rate Highest in 15 Years

   VOA News 16 September 2010
   Unemployed  people  use  computers  to  search  for  jobs  as  well as
   telephones  to  seek out unemployment insurance benefits at the Nevada
   JobConnect Career Center in Las Vegas, 01 Sep 2010

Photo: AP

   Unemployed  people  use  computers  to  search  for  jobs  as  well as
   telephones  to  seek out unemployment insurance benefits at the Nevada
   JobConnect Career Center in Las Vegas, 01 Sep 2010

   The [1]U.S. Census Bureau says the U.S. poverty rate rose last year to
   its  highest  level  in  15 years - while the overall number of people
   living  in  poverty  was the most in the five decades since statistics
   have been available.
   In  a  report  issued  Thursday,  the  bureau says the total number of
   people  living  in poverty in the United States rose from 13.2 percent
   in  2008 to 14.3 percent in 2009. It says 43.6 million people lived in
   poverty last year, an increase of nearly four million from 2008.
   The  Census  Bureau's  director  of  Housing and Household statistics,
   David  Johnson, says the severity of the recession had many economists
   predicting  the  poverty  rate  would  have  been even higher. He said
   increased  unemployment  and  other  government benefits kept the rate
   down.
   The  study  also shows the number of people in the U.S. without health
   insurance  rose  to more than 50 million in 2009, from 46.3 million in
   2008,  the  first  increase  in  the  uninsured since the bureau began
   collecting insurance data in 1987.
   Johnson says it is likely the number of uninsured increased because of
   people  losing  employer-based health insurance because of job loss or
   changing from full to part-time work.
   For  a  family  of four, the Census Bureau defines poverty as having a
   yearly  income  of  less  than  about  $22,000  per year.  The median
   household  income  in  the  U.S.  in  2009  was  $49,777,  showing  no
   statistical change from 2008.

References

   1. http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/pdf/incpovfactsheet2010.pdf

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