Poverty rate is steady, Erie data coming this week

Source: Erie Times-News, Pa.迷你倉Sept. 18--The nation's poverty rate remains steady, while the number of children and people age 65 and older who are poor in America is on the rise.A grim look at a country still reeling from the recession was laid out Tuesday in a new poverty report released by the U.S. Census Bureau.Erie, which at last count had a poverty rate nearly twice the national average, will find out this week which direction its poverty measures have gone.The Census Bureau announced Tuesday that the U.S. poverty rate in 2012 was 15 percent, the same rate as in 2011. The rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent.This is the first time the poverty rate has remained at or above 15 percent three years running since 1965, officials said.There were 46.5 million people, or nearly one in seven, living at or below the federal poverty line in 2012, the bureau reported. In 2011, 46.2 million people in the U.S. lived in poverty.The number of people living in poverty nationwide remains the largest in the 54 years that poverty levels have been tracked in the United States.The 2012 poverty rate was 2.5 percentage points higher than in 2007, the year before the recession.The total of 46.5 million people in poverty in 2012 was roughly 7 million higher than in 2008. The poverty line is $23,492 for a family of four and $11,720 for an individual.Tuesday's report did not include new poverty data for the Erie region. Local findings will be released later this week.Lawmakers who represent the area discussed the national poverty data."When you look at today's report and see that more than one in seven Americans are still living in poverty, you quickly realize that a flatline is nothing to celebrate," U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, of Butler, R-3rd Dist., said Tue文件倉day.Kelly's district encompasses one-third of Erie County, including the city of Erie and parts of Millcreek Township. The city of Erie's poverty rate in 2011 was 28 percent, or 27,270 people, down from 30.2 percent in 2010, the highest in the city's history."A 15 percent poverty rate is still far too high for a country that has as many abundant resources surrounding us as we do," Kelly said. "Our nation's goal must be to not only prevent people from falling into poverty, but to help those currently there back onto their feet. It can be done."Kelly said the top priority for him is "making our economy strong again both locally and nationally so that more of our friends and neighbors have a fair shot at achieving a secure job with a good wage."More than 16.1 million children were in poverty in the U.S. in 2012, according to Tuesday's report, up from 16 million in 2011.About 3.9 million age 65 and older lived below the federal poverty line, up from 3.6 million in 2011."This new data underscores the need for Congress to work together in a bipartisan way to create jobs and grow the economy," U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat from Scranton, said Tuesday."Earlier this month, I visited Erie to discuss the need to focus on the economy," Casey said. "We need to ensure workers have the skills they need to compete in the job market."The nation's new poverty numbers are part of the Census Bureau's annual report titled "Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States."GERRY WEISS can be reached at 870-1884 or by e-mail. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNweiss.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Erie Times-News (Erie, Pa.) Visit the Erie Times-News (Erie, Pa.) at .GoErie.com Distributed by MCT Information Services存倉