Census: Poverty Falls Slightly in 2011, Median Family Income Drops

Poverty was far higher than 15% among groups with certain characteristics measured by the census. For instance, the poverty rate for blacks was 27.6%, up from 27.4% in 2010. Meanwhile, hispanics had a poverty rate of 25.3%, down from 26.5% in the previous year.

Children were also hit harder by poverty than the population as a whole. The poverty rate for children under 18 was 21.4%, that figure rose to 24.5% for children under 6. For children under 18 in unrelated subfamilies, the poverty rate was 48.4%, higher than the 43.4% poverty rate for all people in unrelated subfamilies.

Poverty rate changes also varied in different regions of the country, poverty rose in both the Northeast and West by 0.2% and 0.5%, respectively. Meanwhile, poverty in the Midwest remained unchanged and fell by 0.8% in the South.

The Census, in its report “Income, Poverty and Health Insurance,” noted that median family income declined by 1.7% between 2010 and 2011, with a median income of $62,273 in 2011. The percentage of people without health insurance fell from 16.3% in 2010 to 15.7% in 2011.

Samuel Weigley

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