Did You Know?
Among those who live in poverty, fully 44.3 percent live in deep or extreme poverty; that is, they live on income that is less than half of the official poverty level.
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Extreme poverty has reached a recorded high; in 2010, one out of every 15 Americans -- 6.7 percent -- was living on cash income less than half the official poverty threshold ($22,190 for a family of four).
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Disability doubles chance of poverty. Among those who are disabled and over the age of 16, fully 21 percent live below the poverty level; in contrast 11 percent of those without disabilities in the same age cohort live in poverty.
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Americans' estimation of wealth distribution is far off from the actual distribution, but Republicans and Democrats alike ideally want a more equal distribution than what they believe currently exists.
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Older adults (65 and older) who experience poverty, stay beneath the federal poverty threshold longer than any other age group in poverty. The "stickiness" of poverty lasts a median period of 6.7 months, compared to the overall median rate of 4.5 months.
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Of the 33 million people in the United States in poverty at the start of 2004, 42 percent were no longer poor 34 months later.
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3.9 million workers lost unemployment insurance benefits in 2010, showing that the Great Recession has not only caused high levels of unemployment but also created significant and historical amounts of long-term unemployment.
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For every 100 children who were poor in 2009, only 22.5 received TANF cash assistance during the average month, the lowest ratio ever.
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Who said, "Addressing poverty and inequality…is at the heart of our agenda for government. It is unacceptable that, in one of the wealthiest nations in the world, millions of adults and children are living in poverty."
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About a third of children experience poverty at some point during childhood.
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18 percent of children in the United States live in poverty (13 million children)
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In today’s dollars, the 1968 hourly minimum wage adds up to $20, 634 a year working full time. The new federal minimum wage of $7.25 comes to just $15,080. That’s $5,554 in lost wages.
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In 2007, one in four workers in the United States earned less than $10 per hour, a wage rate that leaves many of these workers and their families poor or near poor
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The percent of people living in extreme poverty (below 50 percent of the poverty line) in 2008 was 5.6 percent.
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Source: Census Data from the American Community Survey compiled by CLASP
The percentage of people in extreme poverty (below 50 percent of the poverty line) is 5.6 percent.
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President Barack Obama is on record in favor of a modernized poverty measure.
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The official poverty measure is outdated and based on a formula created in the 1960s. Advocates are pushing for a federal change (either through legislation or Administration action) to redefine who is poor in America.
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