POVERTY IN THE UNITED STATES – Highlights

• The official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent—up from 14.3 percent in 2009. This was the third consecutive annual increase in the poverty rate. Since 2007, the poverty rate has increased by 2.6 percentage points, from 12.5 percent to 15.1 percent

• In 2010, 46.2 million people were in poverty, up from 43.6 million in 2009—the fourth consecutive annual increase in the number of people in poverty

• Between 2009 and 2010, the poverty rate increased for non-Hispanic Whites (from 9.4 percent to 9.9 percent), for Blacks (from 25.8 percent to 27.4 percent), and for Hispanics (from 25.3 percent to 26.6 percent). For Asians, the 2010 poverty rate (12.1 percent) was not statistically different from the 2009  poverty rate.

• The poverty rate in 2010 (15.1 percent) was the highest poverty rate since 1993 but was 7.3 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 2010 (46.2 million) is the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published.

• Between 2009 and 2010, the poverty rate increased for children under age 18 (from 20.7 percent to 22.0 percent) and people aged 18 to 64 (from 12.9 percent to 13.7 percent), but was not statistically different for people aged 65 and older (9.0 percent).

What?  Your in the middle class?  How does this relate to you?

INCOME IN THE UNITED STATES – Highlights

• Real median household income was $49,445 in 2010, a 2.3 percent decline from 2009.

• Since 2007, the year before the most recent recession, real median household income has declined 6.4 percent and is 7.1 percent below the median household income peak that occurred in.

• Both family and non-family households had declines in real median income between 2009 and 2010. The income of family households declined by 1.2 percent to $61,544; the income of non-family households declined by 3.9 percent to $29,730.