Census: Poverty Rate Rises to 12.7 Percent
Associated Press

Source: Kingsport Times-News: Wednesday, August 31, 2005: Weather Section Page 3A.

Washington - Even with a robust economy that was adding jobs last year, the number of Americans who fell into poverty rose to 37 million - up 1.1 million from 2003 - according to Census Bureau figures released Tuesday.

It marks the fourth straight increase in the government's annual poverty measure.

The Census Bureau also said household income remained flat, and that the number of people without health insurance edged up by about 800,000 to 45.8 million people.

"I was surprised," said Sheldon Danzinger, co-director of the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan.  "I thought things would have turned around by now."

While disappointed, the Bush administration - which has not seen a decline in poverty numbers since the president took office - said it was not surprised by the new statistics.

Commerce Department spokeswoman E.R. Anderson said they mirror a trend in the 80's and 90's in which unemployment peaks were followed by peaks in poverty and then by a decline in the poverty numbers the next year.

"We hope this is it, that this is the last gasp of indicators for the recession," she said.

Democrats seized on the numbers as proof that the nation is headed in the wrong direction.

"America should be showing true leadership on the great moral issues of our time - like poverty - instead of allowing these situations to get worse," said John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator Democratic vice presidential candidate.  He started a poverty center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Overall, the nation's poverty rate rose to 12.7 percent of the population last year.  Of the 37 million living below the poverty level, close to a third were children.

The last decline in overall poverty was in 2000, during the Clinton administration, when 31.1 million people lived under the threshold.  Since then, the number of people in poverty has increased steadily from 32.9 million in 2001, when the economy slipped into recession, 35.9 million in 2003.

The poverty threshold differs by the size and makeup of a household.  For instance, a family of four was considered living in poverty last year if annual income was $19,307 or less.  For a family of two, it was 12,334.

The increase in poverty came despite strong economic growth, which helped create 2.2 million jobs last year - the best showing for labor market since 1999.  By contrast, there was only a tiny increase of 94,000 jobs in 2003 and job losses in both 2002 and 2001.