$23,021 — The official poverty line for a family of four. It’s $11,484 for an individual.
15.1% — The number of Americans (46 million) in poverty, by the most common official figure. In 2007 the figure was 12.5 percent.
11.1% — The poverty rate in 1973, the lowest since the war on poverty was launched in 1964.
27.4% —African Americans have the highest poverty rate, 27.4 percent, followed by Hispanics at 26.6 percent and whites at 9.9 percent.
45.8% — The number of black children under age 6 living in poverty. That compares to 14.5 percent of white children.
28% — In 2011, 28.0 percent of workers earned poverty-level wages ($11.06 or less an hour).
10.4 million — Of the 46 million poor, 10.4 million are the “working poor,” people who either have jobs or are looking for them for at least half the year, but still fall below the poverty line.
Source: Economic Policy Institute
This article originally appeared in Herald, our bi-monthly magazine. To find out more about the magazine, click here.
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