More people in Delaware are living in poverty than were after the Great Recession, and Delaware is one of two states where the poverty rate went up last year.

The proportion of people in poverty increased nearly two points to 13.6 percent, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau last week. The national average is 12.3 percent.

The other state to see an increase was West Virginia. Poverty rates in 20 other states went down, while the rest remained unchanged.

It is difficult to say whether Delaware's new poverty rate is a blip or not. It is the highest the First State has seen in more than a decade and far exceeds rates seen after the financial crisis of 2007-09.

But Janice Barlow, director of Kids Count Delaware, said the data is based on one-year estimates, which aren't always very precise.

"Typically, when we look at poverty here in Delaware, we look at three-year averages, because they are more accurate," she said.

Nevertheless, Barlow said, when researchers see such a big spike, they have to ask: Is this a fluctuation? Or the beginning of the trend?

Here's what else we know about poverty in Delaware and factors that may have contributed to the change:

Delaware's demographics are changing

The increase in Delaware's poverty rate can be tied to shifting demographics.

The Hispanic and Latino population has skyrocketed. Between 2007 and 2014, it grew 63 percent. In 2017, the population was more than 89,500, according to the new Census data.

Many live in Sussex and Kent counties and have low-paying jobs in the construction, food service and manufacturing industries. Approximately 1 in 5 live below the poverty line, which is more than twice the rate of white Delawareans, according to census data.

“Poverty really is a measure of the income coming into the home, so it’s a complex issue," Barlow said. "There's not necessarily a simple reason or a simple solution.”

There are also more residents of Hispanic and Latino descent living in New Castle County, where poverty rates are up the most, Barlow confirmed. The poverty rate for African-Americans is similar, and within certain census tracts in Wilmington ranges between 40 percent and 69 percent.

That population has increased, as well, at a higher rate than the white population.

Kim Turner with the Food Bank of Delaware had no trouble believing Delaware's poverty rate was up and said demand for its services is on the rise.

In 2015, the nonprofit was distributing about 6.2 million pounds of food to soup kitchens, food pantries and hunger-relief agencies in Delaware, she said. Today, it distributes 7.5 million pounds, though that number is expected to go up when the organization moves to its new location at 22 Lake Drive near Glasgow.

A lot of those living in poverty are children

About 16.6 percent of Delaware children live in poverty, according to three-year averages from Kids Count Delaware, a program that tracks the condition of the state’s children.

The younger kids are, the more likely they are to be poor. That's partly because their parents have yet to meet their full earning potential. Adults tend to make more money as they get older, and young parents especially may struggle to meet ends meet.

Parents with young children may also choose to stay home with their kids rather than work in an attempt to save money on childcare, Barlow added.

Dan Rich, a public policy professor at the University of Delaware, has accused Delaware's legislators of failing to meet the needs of impoverished children in Delaware.

In 2009, Delaware's Child Poverty Task Force outlined recommendations to reduce child poverty by 50 percent over 10 years, but resulting policies fell flat, Rich said.

"The legislation was fragmented and dispersed, and it did not have the kind of impact that people had hoped," he told U.S. News and World Report.

The Food Bank has seen an increase in food insecurity among children, as well.

"Our school pantry program is now in 30-plus schools, the governor has basic needs closets in many schools, and First Lady Tracey Carney’s main priority is addressing food insecure children," Turner said. "We know that kids are hungry because their families are living in poverty and simply can’t afford to pay their rent/mortgage, buy food and pay for other essentials."

In June, the Delaware State Education Association held a poverty simulation for teachers based on real-life cases of low-income families.

There's room for improvement

Delaware's poverty rate isn't the highest in the U.S., but it isn't the lowest, either.

Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and New Jersey all have better poverty rates than Delaware. Louisiana and New Mexico are on the high end, with rates surpassing 19 percent.

The number of Americans living in poverty is unchanged at 39.7 million, but the poverty rate dipped to 12.3 percent from 12.7 percent in 2016, the third consecutive annual decline. Since 2014, the rate has fallen from 14.8 percent, the census report said.

The White House said the numbers are yet another indicator of how the growing economy has benefited Americans, but argued that they understate the country's progress. The Trump administration said the Census Bureau should take into account non-cash welfare benefits such as Medicaid and SNAP, to paint a more accurate picture of "absolute material hardship" in the U.S.

"These are real resources that affect economic wellbeing and they should be accounted for in economic hardship measures," the White House said in a statement, before arguing that non-disabled working-age adults have become too dependent on welfare.

Barlow explained that the poverty measure used by the Census Bureau for the American Community Survey was created by an economist in the 60s, and was based on the premise that most people spend one-third of their income on food.

“That’s not the case today," she said. "There’s a lot of expenses that we incur today that weren’t common in the 60s.”

There are also a lot of programs, like those that supplement the cost of childcare, that help keep costs down for families. The Census Bureau also publishes a Supplemental Poverty Measure taking those things into account, and the poverty rate for children is consistently lower.

“That tells me that the things that we’re doing are working," Barlow said.

Arloc Sherman, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said there has been strong growth in employment and wages since 2015 and 2016.

But “the truism holds that in most years what one presidential administration does doesn’t have a very large effect on these kinds of major economic indicators and that’s especially true of the first year of any presidential administration because they haven’t had time to put anything in place yet,” he said.

Meanwhile, advocates for the poor complain there are still too many people living in poverty and the federal government hasn’t done enough to shore up the safety net.

“Million upon millions suffer from poverty and low wealth while we continue to give unnecessary tax cuts to the wealthy,” William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, told reporters during a telephone call.

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USA Today reporter Paul Davidson contributed reporting. Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies.