The Census Bureau has released the 2010 report on poverty in America. Follow this site for in depth reports, and lots of charts, on this topic during the next week.

Quick takes on the Census report.

Income equality between women and men is unchanged from 2009, at 77%. Record was set under George Bush in 2008, 77.1%. Median income for single mom households fell 3.3%. Median income for blacks fell 3.2%. Median income in a home with a disabled householder fell 8.5%.

Poverty rate at its highest level since 1993. Since 1965, only one year has been higher, 1983, 15.2%. Those 18-24 registered the biggest increase in poverty from 2009, 21.9%. Poverty declined in areas outside MSA’s (cities and burbs).

Obama’s claim will be that in nearly every year after the end of a recession, poverty rate increased. The 2010 increase is the largest since 1980, and of the eight recessions cited, 3 rates declined (prior to 1980). The number of people in poverty is 33% higher than after any other recession.

5.7 million non-citizens live in poverty, increase of 1.5%. 27% of all non-citizens live in poverty, and they are 15% of all (citizens and non-citizens) living in poverty.

900,000 more ppl did not have health insurance in 2010 than 2009, though the overall percentage was unchanged at 16.3%. 35% of non-citizens have no health insurance. 8% of households making $75k or more are uninsured.

15.9% of population receiving Medicaid, 14.5% Medicare.

Women achieved record wage parity with men four times in the period 2000 to 2009.

Wage parity between men and women in the United States is a matter of law. You cannot discriminate in wages and salaries solely on the basis of sex. Yet, in the many years since that became the law of the land, women’s wages have never reached 100% parity.

There are many reason why that is. We are doing better, and the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual publication titled Income, Poverty and Health Insurance in the United States: 2009 reveals that progress.

The chart above shows the parity ratio from 2000 to 2009. In those ten years, the ratio set four records. Indeed, it is possible to state that by this measure the Bush years were good for women’s wage parity.

The report may suggest one reason why parity remains just out of reach. The numbers in households headed by a woman with no husband, single parent households, have increased or stayed steady for the last several years for whites and Asians. The same holds true for those same households below the poverty level. Coupled with a solid core of black women lead households in poverty, it would suggest one reason for the stall in wage parity.

Could wage parity in the modern economy be tied to the woman’s ability to have a partner in the household? The number of female headed households in poverty is up 40% in ten years and all such households are up 18%.

The Cen­sus Bureau has released its annual report titled Income, Poverty and Health Insur­ance in the United States: 2009.

Poverty among blacks in America reached record lows during the Clinton Administration and remained at near record lows for most of the Bush Administration. There is a core of poverty among blacks, however, that seems impossible to reach and most of those living within that poverty core are in families headed by single mothers.

The Census Bureau estimates that there were 38.6 million blacks in the United States in 2009. 31.3 million lived in families and of that number, 13.7 million lived in families headed by a single mother. Almost 35.5% of all blacks lived in families headed by a woman with no husband present.

25.8% of all blacks lived in poverty. For those living in families, the percentage was lower, 24.4%. For those living in households headed by a woman with no husband present, 39.7% lived in poverty.

The lowest poverty rate for blacks was in 2000, at 22.5%. Black families also reached a historically low poverty rate that year at 21.2%. In the category Families with Female Householder – No Husband Present, the lowest poverty rate was in 2001, at 37.4%.

The core of black poverty in America is the 5 million plus who live in families headed by a woman. 14% of all blacks in America live in poverty in households headed by a woman.

The data and graphs derived from the data are from the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual publication titled Income, Poverty and Health Insurance in the United States: 2009.

The Census Bureau reports that 43.6 million Americans lived in poverty in 2009. 31.2 million were in a family, and of that number 14.7 million were in households headed by a single woman.

The total United States population for 2009 was an estimated 303,820,000 people. The Census Bureau estimated that 21,573,000 people were not United States citizens and of that number, 5,425,00 lived in poverty. Just over 12% of those living in poverty in America in 2009 were not citizens while just over 7% of the total population were not.

About 59% of non-citizens, according to the Census Bureau, were Hispanic. 71% of the non-citizens living in poverty in the United States in 2009 were Hispanic.

One of the issues with this report concerns the matter of race. I have chosen to use the White – non Hispanic and Black alone numbers for the graphs. Hispanic is defined in the report as all races. It is somewhat apparent that racial definitions are fluid, and the historical data reflects changes over the last decade.

Percentage of all Americans living in poverty 1990 to 2009

The Census Bureau has released its annual report titled Income, Poverty and Health Insurance in the United States: 2009. As we have since 2002, we will be analyzing and graphing some of the data from this report. This is the first in a series of reports.

Here is the Census Bureau’s press release.

Summary of Key Findings

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that real median household income in the United States in 2009 was $49,777, not statistically different from the 2008 median.

The nation’s official poverty rate in 2009 was 14.3 percent, up from 13.2 percent in 2008 — the second statistically significant annual increase in the poverty rate since 2004. There were 43.6 million people in poverty in 2009, up from 39.8 million in 2008 — the third consecutive annual increase.

Meanwhile, the number of people without health insurance coverage rose from 46.3 million in 2008 to 50.7 million in 2009, while the percentage increased from 15.4 percent to 16.7 percent over the same period.

These findings are contained in the report Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2009. The following results for the nation were compiled from information collected in the 2010 Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC):

Income

Race and Hispanic Origin (Race data refer to people reporting a single race only. Hispanics can be of any race.)

• Among race groups, Asian households had the highest median income in 2009. Real median income declined between 2008 and 2009 for non-Hispanic white and black households, while the changes for Asian and Hispanic-origin households were not statistically different. (See Table A [PDF].

Regions

• In 2009, households in the West and Northeast had the highest median household incomes. (The apparent difference between the two regions was not statistically significant.) Real median income declined between 2008 and 2009 in the Midwest and West; the changes for the Northeast and South were not statistically significant. (See Table A [PDF].

Nativity

• In 2009, households maintained by naturalized citizens had the highest median income. Native-born households and those maintained by noncitizens experienced income declines from 2008 to 2009, in real terms. The changes in the median income of all foreign-born households and households maintained by a naturalized citizen were not statistically significant. (See Table A [PDF].

Earnings

• In 2009, the earnings of women who worked full time, year-round were 77 percent of that for corresponding men, not statistically different from the 2008 ratio.
• The real median earnings of men who worked full time, year-round rose by 2.0 percent between 2008 and 2009, from $46,191 to $47,127. For women, the corresponding increase was 1.9 percent, from $35,609 to $36,278. (The difference between the 2.0 and 1.9 percent increases was not statistically significant.)

Income Inequality

• The change in income inequality between 2008 and 2009 was not statistically significant, as measured by shares of aggregate household income by quintiles and the Gini index. The Gini index was 0.468 in 2009. (The Gini index is a measure of household income inequality; 0 represents perfect income equality and 1 perfect inequality.)

Poverty

• The poverty rate in 2009 was the highest since 1994, but was 8.1 percentage points lower than the poverty rate in 1959, the first year for which poverty estimates are available. The number of people in poverty in 2009 is the largest number in the 51 years for which poverty estimates are available.
• In 2009, the family poverty rate and the number of families in poverty were 11.1 percent and 8.8 million, respectively, up from 10.3 percent and 8.1 million in 2008.
• The poverty rate and the number in poverty increased across all types of families: married-couple families (5.8 percent and 3.4 million in 2009 from 5.5 percent and 3.3 million in 2008); female-householder-with-no-husband-present families (29.9 percent and 4.4 million in 2009 from 28.7 percent and 4.2 million in 2008) and for male-householder-no-wife-present families (16.9 percent and 942,000 in 2009 from 13.8 percent and 723,000 in 2008).

Thresholds

• As defined by the Office of Management and Budget and updated for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, the weighted average poverty threshold for a family of four in 2009 was $21,954. Since the average annual CPI-U for 2009 was lower than the average annual CPI-U for 2008, poverty thresholds for 2009 are slightly lower than the corresponding thresholds for 2008. (See <http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/cpstables/032010/pov/new35_000.htm> for the complete set of dollar value thresholds that vary by family size and composition.)

Race and Hispanic Origin (Race data refer to people reporting a single race only. Hispanics can be of any race.)

• The poverty rate for non-Hispanic whites was lower in 2009 than it was for other racial groups. The poverty rate is not statistically different from the 2008 poverty rate for Asians, but increased for all other race groups and for Hispanics. Table B [PDF] details 2009 poverty rates and numbers in poverty, as well as changes since 2008 in these measures, for race groups and Hispanics.

Age

• The poverty rate increased for children younger than 18 (from 19.0 percent in 2008 to 20.7 percent in 2009) and people 18 to 64 (from 11.7 percent in 2008 to 12.9 percent in 2009), while it declined for people 65 and older (from 9.7 percent in 2008 to 8.9 percent in 2009).
• Similar to the patterns observed for the poverty rate in 2009, the number of people in poverty increased for children younger than 18 (14.1 million in 2008 to 15.5 million in 2009) and people 18 to 64 (22.1 million in 2008 to 24.7 million in 2009) and declined for seniors 65 and older (from 3.7 million in 2008 to 3.4 million in 2009).

Nativity

• The 2009 poverty rate for naturalized citizens was not statistically different from 2008, while the poverty rates of native-born and noncitizens increased. Table B [PDF] details 2009 poverty rates and the numbers in poverty, as well as changes since 2008 in these measures, by nativity.

Regions

• The poverty rate increased from 2008 to 2009 in the Midwest, South and West while all four regions had increases in the number of people in poverty. (The 2009 poverty rate for the Northeast was not statistically different from its 2008 poverty rate.) See Table B [PDF].

Health Insurance Coverage

• The number of people with health insurance decreased from 255.1 million in 2008 to 253.6 million in 2009. Since 1987, the first year that comparable health insurance data were collected, this is the first year that the number of people with health insurance has decreased.
• Between 2008 and 2009, the number of people covered by private health insurance decreased from 201.0 million to 194.5 million, while the number covered by government health insurance climbed from 87.4 million to 93.2 million. The number covered by employment-based health insurance declined from 176.3 million to 169.7 million. The number with Medicaid coverage increased from 42.6 million to 47.8 million.
• Comparable health insurance data were first collected in 1987. The percentage of people covered by private insurance (63.9 percent) is the lowest since that year, as is the percentage of people covered by employment-based insurance (55.8 percent). In contrast, the percentage of people covered by government health insurance programs (30.6 percent) is the highest since 1987, as is the percentage covered by Medicaid (15.7 percent).
• In 2009, 10.0 percent (7.5 million) of children under 18 were without health insurance. Neither estimate is significantly different from the corresponding 2008 estimate.
• The uninsured rate for children in poverty (15.1 percent) was greater than the rate for all children.
• In 2009, the uninsured rates decreased as household income increased: from 26.6 percent for those in households with annual incomes less than $25,000 to 9.1 percent in households with incomes of $75,000 or more.

Race and Hispanic Origin (Race data refer to those reporting a single race only. Hispanics can be of any race.)

• The uninsured rate and number of uninsured in 2009 were not statistically different from 2008 for Asians while increasing for all other race groups and for Hispanics. See Table C [PDF].

Nativity

• The proportion of the foreign-born population without health insurance in 2009 was nearly two-and-a-half times that of the native-born population. The uninsured rate was not statistically different for naturalized citizens but rose for noncitizens and the native-born.
  Table C [PDF] details the 2009 uninsured rate and the number of uninsured, as well as changes since 2008 in these measures, by nativity.

Regions

• The Northeast had the lowest uninsured rate in 2009. Between 2008 and 2009, the uninsured rates and number of uninsured increased in all four regions. See Table C [PDF].

The Census Bureau’s statistical experts, with assistance from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget, the Economics and Statistics Administration and other appropriate agencies and outside experts, are now developing a Supplemental Poverty Measure. The Supplemental Poverty Measure will provide an additional measure of economic well-being. It will not replace the official poverty measure and will not be used to determine eligibility for government programs. See Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2009, for more information.

The Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement is subject to sampling and nonsampling errors. All comparisons made in the report have been tested and found to be statistically significant at the 90 percent confidence level, unless otherwise noted.

For additional information on the source of the data and accuracy of the estimates for the CPS, visit <http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/p60_238.pdf>.