America's North Shore Journal

The Cen­sus Bureau has released its report titled: Income, Poverty and Health Insur­ance Cov­er­age in the United States: 2008. The release of the report was delayed by about a month by the administration.

Highlights

• The offi­cial poverty rate in 2008 was 13.2 per­cent, up from 12.5 per­cent in 2007. This was the first sta­tis­ti­cally sig­nif­i­cant annual increase in the poverty rate since 2004, when poverty increased to 12.7 per­cent from 12.5 per­cent in 2003.
• In 2008, 39.8 mil­lion peo­ple were in poverty, up from 37.3 mil­lion in 2007 — the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive annual increase in the num­ber of peo­ple in poverty.
• In 2008, the poverty rate increased for non-Hispanic Whites (8.6 per­cent in 2008 — up from 8.2 per­cent in 2007), Asians (11.8 per­cent in 2008 — up from 10.2 per­cent in 2007) and His­pan­ics (23.2 per­cent in 2008 — up from 21.5 per­cent in 2007). Poverty rates in 2008 were sta­tis­ti­cally unchanged for Blacks (24.7 percent).
• The poverty rate in 2008 (13.2 per­cent) was the high­est poverty rate since 1997 but was 9.2 per­cent­age points lower than in 1959, the first year for which poverty esti­mates are available.
• Since 1960, the num­ber of peo­ple below poverty has not exceeded the 2008 fig­ure of 39.8 mil­lion peo­ple.^[1]
• The poverty rate increased for chil­dren under 18 years old (19.0 per­cent in 2008 — up from 18.0 per­cent in 2007) and peo­ple 18 to 64 years old (11.7 per­cent in 2008 — up from 10.9 per­cent in 2007), while it remained sta­tis­ti­cally unchanged for peo­ple 65 years and over (9.7 per­cent).^[2]

Some com­par­isons are called for since year over year num­bers can be a bit misleading.

Here is a com­par­i­son of the poverty rates by term for recent Pres­i­dents.

Click on the graph for a larger image.

Graph of his­tor­i­cal poverty rates in the United States through 2008 for entire population

Graph of his­tor­i­cal poverty rates for fam­i­lies in the United States through 2008

In 1981, 30% of Amer­i­cans earned under $25,000 a year, and 41% earned over $50,000 per year. In 2008, 25% earned under $25,000 and 50% earned over $50,000 a year.

The remain­ing entries in the series will explore poverty in the elderly, the black and His­panic com­mu­nity and the issue of wage par­ity between men and women.