Social & Demographic Trends

Adding Context to the Census Bureau’s Report on the Rise in Poverty Rate

September 13, 2011

The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that the nation's poverty rate grew to 15.1% in 2010, an increase for the third year in a row, and that median household income declined in 2010. Pew Research Center reports have documented the impact of the Great Recession and shaky recovery on Americans' wealth, work lives, personal finances and emotional well-being -- finding, for example, that more than half of working Americans report a job-related hardship.

Read D'Vera Cohn's story at pewsocialtrends.org on the latest Census Bureau findings and review of recent Pew Research Center reports that help put them in context, including:

• An analysis of the wealth gap between white and minority households
• How the recession has changed life in America
• The toll on the long-term unemployed
• The increase in children being raised by their grandparents
• The rising number of Americans living in intergenerational households