The Poverty Epidemic in America, by the Numbers
April 24, 2007
America is the richest nation in the world, yet 37 million Americans live below the official poverty line and millions more struggle to get by every month.
A poverty epidemic
37 million: Number of Americans who live below the official poverty line—12.6 percent of the total population. Millions more struggle to get by.
36.5 million: Population of California, AmericaÂ’s most populous state
5 million: Number of Americans who are poor today who werenÂ’t in 2000
8 million: Number of Americans who live in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty where at least 40 percent of residents are poor
1 in 8: Proportion of Americans who now live in poverty
1 in 3: Proportion of Americans who are considered low-income
25: Percentage of all workers who were in jobs for which year-round full-time work would not pay enough to keep a family of four above the poverty threshold
1 in 5: Proportion of children who are poor, or 17.6 percent
42: Percentage of children born in the bottom income quintile who will remain in that quintile as adults
6: Percentage of children born in the bottom income quintile who will reach the top quintile as adults
1: Percentage of children from low-income families who will reach the top five percent of the income distribution
22: Percentage of children from wealthy families who will reach the top five percent of the income distribution
19: Percentage of children in poverty who lack health insurance, compared to 11.2 percent of children above poverty
$500 billion: Persistent childhood povertyÂ’s estimated cost to the nation each year because of lost adult productivity and wages, increased crime, and higher health expenditures
Poverty by the Numbers
.. and all those numbers have gotten worse in the last year and Americans living in poverty has reached over 16% .. and rising .. fast