U.S. Racial/Ethnic and Regional Poverty Rates Converge, but Kids Are Still Left Behind
(2007) New poverty estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey show that about 36.5 million Americans—12 percent of the population—lived in poverty in 2006. While poverty rates continue to vary widely by subgroup and region, longer-term trends point to a growing convergence in poverty levels among minority groups and for people living in different parts of the country.1