New Census Bureau Report Shows Increasing Poverty

The U.S. Census Bureau released new data  showing an increase in the nation’s poverty rate. The official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1% percent, up from 14.3% in 2009.  In 2010, 46.2 million Americans were in poverty, compared to 43.6 in 2009, representing the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published. The poverty rate increased for children from 20.7 percent in 2009 to 22.0 percent in 2010, and the total number of children in poverty increased from 15.5 million to 16.4 million. With respect to health insurance coverage, while the percentage of children under 18  without health insurance was not significantly different from 2009 to 2010, the uninsured rate for children in poverty was greater (15.4 percent) than the rate for all children (9.8 percent).