Poverty in the United States: 2009
"In 2009, 43.6 million people were counted as poor in the United States—an increase of 3.7
million persons from 2010, and the largest number of persons counted as poor in the measure’s
50-year recorded history. The poverty rate, or percent of the population considered poor under the
official definition, was reported at 14.3% in 2009, amounting to one of every seven persons in the
U.S. being counted as poor. The 2009 poverty rate was up from 13.2% in 2008, and above its
most recent pre-recession low of 12.3% in 2006. The increase in poverty over the past three years
reflects the effects of the economic recession that began in December 2007. In spite of signs that
the economy may be recovering, some analysts expect poverty to remain above pre-recessionary
levels for as long as a decade. The incidence of poverty varies widely across the population
according to age, education, labor force attachment, family living arrangements, and area of
residence, among other factors. Under the official poverty definition, an average family of four
was considered poor in 2009 if its pre-tax cash income for the year was below $21,954.

The measure of poverty currently in use was developed nearly 50 years ago, and was adopted as
the “official” U.S. statistical measure of poverty in 1969. Except for minor technical changes, and adjustments for price changes in the economy, the “poverty line” (i.e., the income thresholds by which families or individuals with incomes that fall below are deemed to be poor) is the same as that developed nearly a half century ago, reflecting a notion of economic need based on living
standards that prevailed in the mid-1950s..."