Saturday, September 22, 2018

OT -- Poverty in America, No Judgments, Just the Numbers

I have been deeply concerned about poverty in America and poverty in the world.  I pulled a demographic report from the Census Bureau, American FactFinder.  The report I pulled was SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF PEOPLE AT SPECIFIED LEVELS OF POVERTY IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS, 2012-2016 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates.  I then removed the margin of error estimates, probably to the deep chagrin of every statistician out there, and replaced it with a number by multiplying the population estimate by the percentage estimate for people living at less than 50% of the poverty guides.  I got this:


S1703: SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS OF PEOPLE AT
SPECIFIED LEVELS OF POVERTY IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS

Total
Less than 50 percent
of the poverty level
Estimate
Estimate
Number
Population for whom poverty status is determined
310,629,645
6.70%
20,812,186
SEX



  Male
152,049,756
6.10%
9,275,035
  Female
158,579,889
7.30%
11,576,332




AGE



  Under 18 years
72,456,096
9.40%
6,810,873
    Related children of householder under 18 years
72,125,767
9.10%
6,563,445
  18 to 64 years
193,298,963
6.60%
12,757,732
  65 years and over
44,874,586
2.70%
1,211,614




RACE AND HISPANIC OR LATINO ORIGIN



  One race
301,186,289
6.60%
19,878,295
    White
228,440,346
5.40%
12,335,779
    Black or African American
38,562,630
12.40%
4,781,766
    American Indian and Alaska Native
2,511,333
13.20%
331,496
    Asian
16,289,421
5.90%
961,076
    Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
542,970
9.00%
48,867
    Some other race
14,839,589
9.80%
1,454,280
  Two or more races
9,443,356
8.70%
821,572




Hispanic or Latino origin (of any race)
54,085,091
9.20%
4,975,828
White alone, not Hispanic or Latino
192,842,538
4.80%
9,256,442




LIVING ARRANGEMENT



  In family households
258,271,058
5.50%
14,204,908
    In married-couple family
185,884,694
2.20%
4,089,463
    In Female householder, no husband present households
52,789,626
15.70%
8,287,971
  In other living arrangements
52,358,587
12.40%
6,492,465




EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT



  Population 25 years and over
210,091,977
4.90%
10,294,507
    Less than high school graduate
26,769,707
10.00%
2,676,971
    High school graduate (includes equivalency)
57,410,562
5.90%
3,387,223
    Some college or associate's degree
61,447,432
4.50%
2,765,134
    Bachelor's degree or higher
64,464,276
2.30%
1,482,678




NATIVITY AND CITIZENSHIP STATUS



  Native
269,012,519
6.60%
17,754,826
  Foreign born
41,617,126
7.20%
2,996,433
    Naturalized citizen
19,796,939
3.80%
752,284




DISABILITY STATUS



  With any disability
39,091,779
8.10%
3,166,434
  No disability
270,843,535
6.50%
17,604,830




WORK STATUS



  Population 16 to 64 years
201,574,667
6.70%
13,505,503
    Worked full-time, year-round
99,828,565
0.50%
499,143
    Worked less than full-time, year-round
53,298,161
8.70%
4,636,940
    Did not work
48,447,941
17.20%
8,333,046


It is both the percentages of each demographic and the aggregate numbers in each demographic that I find interesting.  Women are slightly more likely to live at <50% of the poverty guides and make up a larger number -- there are more women than men in the United States.  Whites are the least likely to to live at <50% of the poverty at 5.4% of the population but that drops to 4.8% for "white alone, not Hispanic or Latino."  Because of the larger number of whites, they make up almost 60% of the number of poor at this level and still over 42% considering the white not Hispanic category.

The data confirm some obvious notions:  young people are more likely to be poor; people with less education are more likely to be poor.

A proposition that may not be obvious:  naturalized citizens are significantly less likely to be poor as compared to native born citizens.  Both groups are less likely to be poor than the whole category of foreign born.  Extracting the naturalized from the foreign born to get a foreign born, not naturalized category and we get 10.2% living at <50% of the poverty guide.

And in case you were wondering, the poverty guides published by HHS:

2018 POVERTY GUIDELINES FOR THE 48 CONTIGUOUS STATES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
PERSONS IN FAMILY/HOUSEHOLD
POVERTY GUIDELINE
For families/households with more than 8 persons, add $4,320 for each additional person.
1
$12,140
2
$16,460
3
$20,780
4
$25,100
5
$29,420
6
$33,740
7
$38,060
8
$42,380

The federal SSI rates paid to aged and disabled would keep people above the <50% poverty level but not above the poverty level. 

I represent claimants for Social Security disability (both DIB and SSI) that subsist on largess of other or just food stamps.  Many "couch surf;" others are just plain homeless.  I am reminded that minimum wage in Mexico is about $4.70 per day.  World guidelines define "extreme poverty" as living on less than $1.90 per day with under 10% of the world population at that level since 2013 (that's 600 million people).  HHS defines poverty for a family of four at under $69 per day or about $17 per day per person.  The number of poor in the U.S. described above -- $8.50 per day per person in a family of four.  SNAP or food stamps pay benefits in addition to poverty level wages:

TABLE 1
SNAP Benefits by Household Size
Household Size
Maximum Monthly Benefit,
Fiscal Year 2018
Estimated Average Monthly Benefit, Fiscal Year 20181
1
$192
$134
2
$352
$252
3
$504
$376
4
$640
$456
5
$760
$521
6
$913
$618
7
$1,009
$672
8
$1,153
$852
Each additional person
$144
These are data worth considering in policy and kitchen table debates over poverty in the United States and poverty in the world.  I leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions about the subject of poverty.  

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