Things I did not know…
Interesting Facts Poverty in the United States
* The three most common reasons people fall into situational poverty are illness, divorce, and job loss.
* Of the 25 richest industrialized nations, the United States has the highest childhood poverty rate second only to Mexico.
* 37 million people live in poverty in the U.S. - a number equal to the entire population of Canada.
* 15.6 million people in the U.S. live at half the poverty level, in what is qualified as “extreme poverty.”
* Two-thirds of people living in poverty work more than one job in order to make ends meet.
* Forty percent of the poor are children, elderly or disabled.
* Less than 60 percent of eligible children are served by Head Start, the national school readiness program for children from low-income families.
* Welfare accounts for only 1 percent of the federal budget and 2 percent of the state budget.
* Persons likely to be on welfare longer than the average time had less than 12 years of education.
* The average family accessing welfare services is no bigger than the average family not accessing welfare.
* 13 million children in America live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level.
* 5 million children in America live in families with incomes of less than half the national poverty level.
* In 2004, almost 12 percent (more than one in eight) of American households with children under 18 were food-insecure-meaning they were not able to access enough food to meet basic nutritional needs.
