(Bloomberg News) The U.S. poverty rate rose to the highest level in almost two decades and household income fell in 2010, underscoring the lingering impact of the worst economic slump in seven decades.
Data released by the Census Bureau today showed the proportion of people living in poverty climbed to 15.1 percent last year from 14.3 percent in 2009, and median household income declined 2.3 percent. The number of Americans living in poverty was the highest in the 52 years since the Census Bureau began gathering that statistic. Those figures may have worsened in recent months as the economy weakened.
"Families are struggling to put food on the table, and they don't have the purchasing power to help the economy recover," said Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
Stagnating incomes and rising poverty will be at the heart of the 2012 presidential campaign that's focusing on joblessness, and will give added urgency to debates in Washington and statehouses across the U.S. over budget cuts to programs designed to protect families from hardship.
The ranks of people in poverty increased to 46.2 million from 43.6 million. The last time the poverty rate reached 15.1 percent was in 1993. It climbed to 15.2 percent in 1983. Median household income in 2010 was $49,445, down from $50,599 the year before.
Health Coverage
The number of those lacking health insurance increased to 49.9 million from 49 million, or about 16.3 percent of the population, a change the bureau said wasn't statistically significant.
The income figures declined even as the U.S. economy expanded 3 percent in 2010. Growth has slowed this year to an annual rate of less than 1 percent, raising concern that the financial struggles of families will continue to worsen and hamper the recovery.
U.S. households have little to cheer about as job creation stagnated last month and hourly wages retreated. The unemployment rate has hovered at or above 9 percent for more than two years. Consumer confidence fell to the second-lowest level this year for the week that ended Sept. 4.
"We would have hoped to have begun to climb out by now in terms of income and poverty rates, and that doesn't seem to be happening," said Sawhill, who was associate director of the White House budget office under President Bill Clinton.