Although I hadn't really stated any specifics on "who" in my original post, I had assumed that minorities and the elderly were among the nations poorest. I was astonished to find out that every 1 in 3 poor people (in 2005) were under the age of 18. In 2005, only 10.1 percent of those who were in poverty were 65 and over while 17.6 percent were under the age of 18. As far as poverty correlation related to race, I had imagined that the white or non-hispanic population is less affected by poverty, but I had no idea there was such an enormous difference. 24.9 percent of the poverty stricken are black, and 21.8 percent are hispanic, while whites only occupy 8.3 percent.
Despite race or age, we have seen an overall increase in the number of people affected by poverty. Since 2000, the number affected has more than sextupled from 5.4 million to 36.9 million.
I am especially curious to see the reasons given when concerning why the number has jumped so much.
Do you have any hypotheses? Did any of the statistics surprise you?
I have an update to the true definition of 'poor.'
ReplyDeleteAfter reading, I now realize that the state of 'poor' can be described as people who do make an income, but it's such a small amount that it makes it difficult to live in a decent fashion.
On the other hand, the very poor can be described as those who have little to no income and have significantly insufficient funds for decent living or even mere survival.
I can also add that often those that are poorest are minority women and children. Another interesting thing I found out is that despite what many may think, laziness is a small reason to the large number of poverty stricken. I was supervised to find out that over half the population of poor people do work atleast part-time. It has even been reported that the middle class income has declined by almost 5% and as we know, the unemployment rate is also at a high.