@@ U.S. poverty rate continues to rise @@

U.S. Census Bureau
August 30, 2005


Income Stable, Poverty Rate Increases, Percentage of Americans Without Health
Insurance Unchanged


The number of people classed as poor in the U.S. has increased - despite strong
economic growth.
An extra 1.1 million Americans dropped below the poverty line last year.

There were 37 million people living in poverty in 2004, up 12.7% from the previous
year.

The report said non-Hispanic whites were the only ethnic group to experience an
increase in poverty as well as a drop in income.

It rose only for non-Hispanic whites, from 8.2 % in 2003 to 8.6 % over the same
period. The poverty rate remained unchanged for black and Hispanics.

The rise in poverty comes despite solid economic growth in 2004, which helped to
create 2.2 million jobs in the U.S.

"I guess what happened last year was kind of similar to what happened in the early
1990s where you had a recession that was officially over and then you had several
years after that of rising poverty", said Charles Nelson, an assistant division chief
at the Census Bureau.

Sheldon Danziger (http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/people/profile.html?ID=22),
co-director of the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan, said
poverty rates were still much better than in the early nineties.

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/005647.html


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