Poverty In America Essay

Introduction

One in six Americans live in poverty. The state of poverty is classified as “one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions” (Merriam-Webster, 2016). In the United States, poverty levels are measured using the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual “poverty report”. These outline statistics connecting income and its relation to poverty, including how prevalent poverty is based on age, race, ethnicity, and family types. Arguably most importantly, it reports on income and income inequality (Institute for Research on Poverty, 2017). In 2017, the average annual income for a family of four living in poverty was $24,600 (Institute for Research on Poverty, 2017). Anyone who makes at or below the “poverty threshold” annually is considered to

In 2014, the rate of married couples with or without families living in poverty was 5.4%, however in single parent households the poverty rate was 14.9% for households with a single father and 28.2% with single mothers (Poverty Facts). Statistics from 2015 show a 29% poverty rate for people with disabilities- about 4 million people. Heartbreakingly, 19.7% (about 1 in 5) children in the United States lived in poverty in 2015, totaling to about 14.5 million children. According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, about 2.5 million children experience homelessness every year (Poverty Facts). Looking at the major ethnicities found in the United States, African Americans have the highest poverty percentage at 24.1%, followed by Hispanics (21.4%), Asians (11.4%), and Caucasians (9%) (Poverty Facts). On average, 6% of the population only makes 50% of their predicted poverty thresholds (based on household size), categorizing them as living in “extreme poverty”. 33% of Americans live close to poverty, meaning less than twice their predicted poverty thresholds. It can be inferred that one of the main cures for poverty would be a solid educational foundation allowing students to