Few people need a census report to tell them that more people are living in poverty during this recession, but there it is: nearly one of every seven people in the United States was living in poverty last year.
It was the highest rate of poverty since 1994, and the largest number of people living in poverty, 43.6 million, since the government began keeping track 51 years ago.
The U.S. Census Bureau also reported stagnant incomes and rising numbers of people without health insurance, both of which contribute to poverty and a national trend of a declining middle-class standard of living that began in 2000.
“These are very tough times,” said East Cooper Community Outreach Executive Director Jack Little. “People are hurting who have never hurt before.”