globalization of the economy; ■ decline in the real minimum wage; ■ decline in unionization; ■ increase in immigration; and ■ increase in families headed by women (from 10% in 1970 to 18% in
1996 and 24.7% in 2000—households headed by women generally have lower incomes). In fact, in households headed by women, with no husband present, the percentage below the poverty level was 9.7% in 2009.
The following are compelling examples of the poverty in the United States:
■ Nationally, 13.8% of the U.S. population was in poverty during the 5 years, 2006–2010, according to the estimate from the 5-year American Community Survey’s data. (Bishaw, A. (2011) Areas With Concentrated Poverty: 2006–2010 American Community Survey Re- trieved from http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/acsbr10-17. pdf February 26, 2011).
■ In 2009 alone, 43.6 million people were in poverty, up from 39.8 mil- lion in 2008—the third consecutive annual increase in the number of people in poverty.
■ The poverty rate in 2009 (14.3%) was the highest poverty rate since 1994 but was 8.1 percentage points lower than the poverty rate in 1959, the first year for which poverty estimates are available.
■ The number of people in poverty in 2009 (43.6 million) is the larg- est number in the 51 years for which poverty estimates have been published.
■ Between 2008 and 2009, the poverty rate increased for children under the age of 18 (from 19.0% to 20.7%) and people aged 18 to 64 (from 11.7% to 12.9%), but decreased for people aged 65 and older (from 9.7% to 8.9%) (DeNavas-Walt, Proctor, & Smith, 2011, p. 14).
The poverty status of people between 2005 and 2009 for
■ Blacks was 22.1%; ■ Non-Hispanic Whites was 10.8%; ■ American Indians and Alaska natives was 25.9%;