Nearly 36 Million Americans living in Poverty
By Andrea Hopkins
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some 1.3 million
Americans slid into poverty in 2003 as the ranks of the poor rose 4 percent to 35.9 million, with
children and blacks worse off than most, the U.S. government said on Thursday in a report sure to
fuel Democratic criticism of President Bush.
Despite the economic recovery, the percentage
of the U.S. population living in poverty rose for the third straight year to 12.5 percent -- the
highest since 1998 -- from 12.1 percent in 2002, the Census Bureau said in its annual poverty
report. The widely cited scorecard on the nation's economy showed one-third of those in poverty were
children.
The number of U.S. residents without health
care coverage also rose by 1.4 million last year to 45 million, the highest level since 1999, and
incomes were essentially stagnant, the Census Bureau said.
The poverty line is set at an annual income of
$9,573 or less for an individual, or $18,660 for a family of four with two children. Under that
measure, a family would spend about a third of its income on food.
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry
has argued Bush's economic stewardship, including three rounds of tax cuts since 2001, has done more
to help wealthy Americans than the poor or middle class.
"Today confirms the failure of President
Bush's policies for all Americans," the Massachusetts senator said in a statement. "Under
George Bush's watch, America's families are falling further behind."
Analysts have said the poverty rate typically
tracks the broad economy, rising during a recession and falling in boom times, and the Bush
administration said the report was "looking backwards at the economy" because it does not
capture recent job growth or the full benefit of recent tax cuts.
"The first thing to remember is that the
number of people living below the poverty line has historically mirrored the rise and fall in the
number of people working," Commerce Secretary Don Evans told a conference call. "In June
of 2003, when this data was collected, the unemployment rate was 6.3 percent. Now it is down to 5.5.
percent."
POOR CHILDREN
The United States has struggled to recover
from the 2001 slump, and job creation has lagged behind overall growth. Since Bush took office, 1.1
million jobs have disappeared, but employment has begun to rebound and analysts believe incomes may
begin to improve once the job market strengthens.
The poverty rate has risen each year since
2000, when it was 11.3 percent. It hit a record low 11.1 percent in 1973.
Children and most racial minorities again
fared worse in 2003 than the overall population, according to the Census report. The rate of child
poverty rose to 17.6 percent from 16.7 percent in 2002 -- boosting the number of poor children to
12.9 million.
The poverty rate of African Americans remained
nearly twice the national rate, with 24.4 percent of blacks living below the poverty line in 2003,
nearly unchanged from 24.1 percent a year earlier. The poverty rate for Hispanics was 22.5 percent,
up from 21.8 percent.
Non-Hispanic whites fared best, with a poverty
rate of 8.2 percent, nearly unchanged from 8.0 percent a year earlier.
The report showed real median income for all
races was unchanged at $43,318 in 2003.
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