America: Poverty Increases

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Poverty Rates Increase in most U.S. States and Cities: Census

The ranks of those who live in poverty increased in almost all U.S. states and cities in 2010.

Poverty is increasing in America. The ranks of the poor rose in almost all U.S. states and cities in 2010, according to U.S. Census data.

 

Poverty homeless man sleeping on skid row

 

Mississippi (22.4%) and New Mexico (20.4%) lead the nation with the highest poverty rates—more than one out of every five people in each state lives in poverty.

New Hampshire had the lowest poverty rate at 8.3%, the only state with a poverty rate below 10 percent.

Census data indicates 12 states show increases in poverty rates above 17%, which increased from 5% in 2009. Poverty rates in 10 metropolitan areas topped 18%.

Elizabeth Kneebone, a senior research associate focusing on metropolitan issues at the Brookings Institution, said We saw the recession hit and unemployment increase, but we haven’t seen a dramatic drop in unemployment. Because we’re still in this weak recovery, we could see these numbers get worse before they get better.

The U.S. recession that began in 2007 spared only a few places in America from rising joblessness and crashing incomes. More than a year after the recession, which allegedly ended in 2009, U.S. unemployment rate remains above 9% and the poverty rate increased significantly to 15.3% in 2010 from 14.3% in 2009.

The Census Bureau reported no state had a statistically significant decline in either the number of people in poverty or the poverty rate between 2009 and 2010.

Kneebone noted that many of the largest increases in poverty during the first year of the recession centered in the inner-mountain west and the Sunbelt.

She said, As the recession deepened and spread to other industries, other regions of the country also saw their numbers increase Kneebone noted that reliant on manufacturing have not fully recovered from a downturn earlier in the decade.

The depth of poverty levels increased in 2010. 6.8% of people who had incomes that were no more than half of the federal government’s official poverty threshold. That rate increased from 6.3% percent in 2009.

Poverty ran deepest in Washington, D.C.: less than one in 10 families had incomes less than 50% the government’s established threshold.

The Census also reported on at the 366 metropolitan areas, which account for more than 80% of the U.S. population.

Cities McAllen, Edinburg, and Mission, Texas, had the highest poverty rate in the country—33.4%. Next on the list was the Fresno, California, area at 26.8%.

Poverty rates over 18% in metropolitan areas centered around El Paso, Texas; Bakersfield, Modesto, and Stockton,. California; Augusta, Georgia; Memphis, Tennessee; and Durham and Greensboro in North Carolina.’

Economic problems spread from core urban areas to the suburbs over the past decade.

Kneebone stated, Many communities are facing this challenge in a magnitude they’ve never had to deal with before. There are now 2.7 million more people in suburbs than in cities.

Despite the deep poverty levels in the nation’s capital, the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area had the lowest poverty rate in the nation, at 84%, due to its wealthier suburbs. Honolulu ranked second lowest—9.1 percent.

People who collect food stamps and rely on Medicaid, (the government healthcare program for the poor,) skyrocketed in recent years. The Census also found more people collected other forms of public assistance in 2010 than 2009.

In 2010, 3.3 million people received public assistance at some time in the year, which increased from 300,000 in 2009. U.S. households received about 2.9% in public assistance, which increased from 2.7& percent in 2009.

States with the highest public assistance participation included Alaska, Maine, Vermont, and Washington. The states with the lowest rates were Louisiana, Alabama, and Wyoming.

Although Alaska and Maryland showed poverty rates of 9.9 in 2010, the margins of error for those states were greater than 0.3%.


Mad Mike’s America thanks Reuters and Lisa Lambert.


How worse do you expect poverty to get in America—and the world?

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Dorothy Anderson

I want to know what you think and why, especially if we disagree. Civil discourse is free speech: practice daily. Always question your perspective.
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AngryByte
12 years ago

Well thought out.

12 years ago

Staggering and sobering facts. I honestly think it will get worse, because people continue to vote against their best interests in favor of giving more tax breaks to people who don’t need them, and voting FOR people who continue to defund social programs and have the motto “Save The Fetus, Starve The Child”. Great article, depressing, but great.

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