Fun Facts about Poverty!

[tony human]

1)      47.8% of households that receive food stamps are working, because having a job is not enough to keep them out of poverty.

2)      The number of people on food stamps has increased by 20 million over the past five years. 

3)      10 million more Americans fallen below the poverty line since 2006.

4)      About half of all Americans are now either living in poverty or are considered to be low income.  So is America a "wealthy" nation?

5)      The number of children living in poverty in America keeps rising year after year. The %age of children living in poverty in the US increased from 16.9% in 2006 to nearly 22% in 2010.

6)      The number of Americans on food stamps continues to set new all-time records.  Just check out the following progression….

7)      October 2008: 30.8 million Americans on food stamps

8)      October 2009: 37.6 million Americans on food stamps

9)      October 2010: 43.2 million Americans on food stamps

10)   October 2011: 46.2 million Americans on food stamps

11)   The number of Americans on food stamps is at an all-time high.  It has increased by 3 million since this time last year and by more than 14 million since 2008.

12)   49% of all Americans live in a home that gets direct monetary benefits from the federal government.  Back in 1983, less than 33% of all Americans lived in a home that received direct monetary benefits from the federal government.

13)   Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.  Unprecedented in American history.

14)   In 2010, 42% of all single mothers in the US were on food stamps.

15)   The total cost of just three federal government programs - the Department of Defense, Social Security and Medicare - exceeded the total amount of taxes brought in during fiscal 2010 by 10 billion dollars.

16)   Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24% of GDP.  Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18%.

17)   Approximately 100 million Americans are either living in poverty or in "the fretful zone just above it".

18)   About 34% of all elderly Americans are living in poverty or "near poverty", and 39% of all children in America are living in poverty or "near poverty".

19)   The number of Americans that fell into poverty (2.6 million) set a new all-time record in 2010 and extreme poverty (6.7%) is at the highest level ever measured in the US.

20)   Incredibly, more than one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps at this point.

21)   Since 2008, the number of Americans on food stamps has increased by 14.3 million.

22)   Food prices continue to rise at a very brisk pace.  The price of beef is up 9.8% over the past year, the price of eggs is up 10.2% over the past year and the price of potatoes is up 12% over the past year.

23)   There is now an all-time record of 46 million Americans on food stamps.

24)   Child poverty is more than twice as high as France and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

25)   In 2011, 2.6 million more Americans dropped into poverty.  That was the largest increase that we have seen since the US government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.

26)   Since 2007 the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30%.

27)   48% of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.

28)   20 % of all US adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.

29)   57% of all children in the US are living in homes that are either considered to be "low income" or impoverished.

30)   1 in 45 children are homeless, a 38% increase since 2007.  More than 1.6 million -- or 1 in 45 -- children are homeless annually in America.  The number represents an astonishing 38% increase in homeless children since 2007. There are more homeless children today than after the natural disasters of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which caused historic levels of homelessness in 2006. 

31)   Child poverty is exploding in America - 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty. This is what happens when right-wing authoritarians (or their bitches, the Democrats) are in office.

32)   One out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

33)   A higher percentage of American children are living in poverty today than was living in poverty back in 1975.

34)   The number of children living in poverty in the US has risen for four years in a row.

35)   There are 10 different US states where at least one out of every four babies is born to a family living in poverty.

36)   More than 35% of all African-American children are living in poverty and more than 33 % of all Hispanic children are living in poverty.

37)   There are seven million children in the US today that are not covered by health insurance at all.

38)   There are 314 counties in the US where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity, and you can bet your bottom dollar they have been redistricted out of affluent neighborhoods controlled by neo-republican scum.

39)   In Washington D.C., the "child food insecurity rate" is 32.3%.

40)   America, home of the greedy, avaricious, ass clown. More than 20 million US children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.

41)   One out of every three Americans would not be able to make a mortgage or rent payment next month if they suddenly lost their current job.

42)   One out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line.

43)   In Cleveland, over 52% of all children are living in poverty and abandoned houses are everywhere.

44)   Sadly 43% of all American families spend more than they earn each year.

45)   The average supermarket in the US wastes about 3,000 pounds of food each year.

46)   In 2010, 2.6 million more Americans descended into poverty.  That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959.

47)   Approximately 100 million Americans are either living in poverty or in "the fretful zone just above it".

48)   Back in the year 2000, 11.3% of all Americans were living in poverty.  Today, 15.1% of all Americans are living in poverty.

49)   The poverty rate for children living in the United States increased to 22% in 2010.

50)   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 6.7% of all Americans are living in "extreme poverty", and that is the highest level that has ever been recorded before.

51)   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of "very poor" rose in 300 out of the 360 largest metropolitan areas during 2010.