1 in 7 Americans live in poverty: US Census

[astodome]

Washington: The Census Bureau in America has reported that the number of Americans living in poverty jumped to 14.3 percent in 2009, with the ranks of working-age poor reaching the highest since at least 1965.

About 43.6 million people, or 1 in 7, were in poverty. That is up from 39.8 million, or 13.2 percent, in 2008.

The number of people lacking health insurance rose from 46.3 million to 50.7 million, due mostly to the loss of employer-provided health insurance during the recession. Congress passed a health overhaul law earlier this year.

The statistics released Thursday cover President Barack Obama's first year in office, when unemployment climbed to 10 percent in the months after the financial meltdown.


1 in 7 Americans live in poverty: US Census

 

[DesiGuy]

"poverty" here has different meaning than most of other countries.

 

[Skeptic]

"poverty" here has different meaning than most of other countries.

Right. US uses 2 methods for the statistical poverty measurement:
a) Relative poverty
b) Poverty Threshold.

In actual terms income of people falling below poverty line in USA might be higher than a upper middle class person in the subcontinent. Example if a person can not afford air conditioning he might be termed as poor.