New info from the Census Buearu says that poverty rates are higher now than last year. | REUTERS Census: 49 million in poverty

New estimates released Monday show that the number of Americans living in poverty was higher than previously estimated, and stands at 49.1 million, according to the Census Bureau.

The nearly-50 million people who live below the poverty line represents 16 percent of all Americans.


The numbers that were released were adjustments to the official 2010 poverty figures of 46.2 million, or 15.1 percent of Americans, that were released in September. The supplemental figure is higher than the official figure because it considers higher costs of living on expenses that aren’t factored into the official rate.

Hispanic poverty rose to 28.2 percent, affecting 14.1 million, surpassing that of blacks for the first time. Still, 9.9 million African-Americans suffered from poverty, a rate of 25.4 percent. The Asian poverty rate was 16.7 percent, affecting 2.4 million people.

Meanwhile, non-Hispanic whites had a lower poverty rate of 11.1 percent, or 21.9 million people.

The widest gulf in poverty rates was between those who had private health insurance versus those who did not. Those who had private health insurance had a poverty rate of just 7.5 percent. While those who had public, but no private, insurance (31.7 percent) and those who were not insured at all (30.7 percent) had much higher poverty rates.

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2020 Census