U.S. Poverty | WORLD VISION BLOG

Tag Archives: U.S. poverty

Report: U.S. poverty rate at highest level since 1993

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Phillip Neal, World Vision U.S. Programs in Causes

For some time now, the struggling U.S. economy has dominated headlines and shaped conversation among Americans. New data released Tuesday in a report from the U.S. Census Bureau, “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States (pdf),” paints an even starker picture of the challenges our nation faces: The U.S. poverty rate rose to 15.1 percent in 2010 — up from 14.3 percent in 2009, and to its highest level since 1993. About 46.2 million people are now considered in poverty — 2.6 million more than last year. That’s nearly 1 in 6 people. More Americans were living in poverty in 2010 than at any time since at least the 1950s. The situation has hit black populations the...

Equal opportunity = a brighter future for us all

Posted on February 16, 2011 by Laura Reinhardt in Causes, Partnerships

Two-year-old Quincy with his mother Shemika at St. Anne's Place shelter. (Laura Reinhardt/WV/2010)

In January, I celebrated my grandson’s first birthday, a momentous event joined by grandparents, parents, sisters, and friends. An abundant variety of food and a stack of brightly-colored presents waited in the living room for my grandson, whose lack of understanding of opening gifts gave his older sisters a chance to show him how it’s done. Needless to say, my grandkids don’t lack creature comforts or love, and the opportunities available to them are endless. But I know that’s not the case for many children growing up in impoverished communities, even in the United States. More than 8 million families in the United States live in poverty, defined as a family of four living on less than $22,050 annually. Parents...