US poverty rate rose to 12.7 percent in 2004

[RYP]

As defined by the Office of Management and Budget and updated for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, the average poverty threshold for a family of four in 2004 was an income of $19,307; for a family of three, $15,067; for a family of two, $12,334; and for unrelated individuals, $9,645

America's poverty rate rose to 12.7 percent of the population last year, the fourth consecutive annual increase, the Census Bureau said Tuesday.

The percentage of people without health insurance did not change.

Overall, there were 37 million people living in poverty, up 1.1 million people from 2003.


Real median household income remained unchanged between 2003 and 2004 at $44,389, according to the report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. Meanwhile, the nation’s official poverty rate rose from 12.5 percent in 2003 to 12.7 percent in 2004.

The percentage of the nation’s population without health insurance coverage remained stable, at 15.7 percent in 2004. The number of people with health insurance increased by 2.0 million to 245.3 million between 2003 and 2004, and the number without such coverage rose by 800,000 to 45.8 million.

These findings are contained in the Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2004 [PDF] report. The report’s data were compiled from information collected in the 2005 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey (CPS).

[Mikethehack]

I liked Martha Gellhorn's bit about the difference between poverty and wealth in government terms being as little as ten dollars a year.

[Billy D]

12.7% might be a significant underestimation because the CPI is national, but there are big regional differences in reality. (e.g. $20,000 per year for a family goes a lot farther in most rural areas than in most cities). So if there are a lot of people living just above the poverty line in urban areas, a regionalized CPI could send the poverty figure way up...

But don't hold your breath for the federal gov't to change how they calculate poverty in a way that would probably make them look worse.