1.4 Million More Americans in Poverty in 2002

By: Genaro C. Armas

Nearly 1.4 million more people in the United States fell into poverty last year - almost half of them children - even as the country emerged from recession, according to a Census Bureau survey.

About 12.4% of the population, or nearly 34.8 million people, lived in poverty in 2002, according to the survey being released today. That was up from 12.1%, or 33.4 million, in 2001.

Roughly 17.2% of children, or 12.2 million, lived in poverty in 2002, up from 16.4%, or 11.5 million, in 2001.

About 6.8 million households in 2002 received food stamps, up from 6.4 million in 2001.

The poverty threshold differs by the size and makeup of a household. For instance, a person under 65 living alone in 2002 was considered in poverty if income was $9,359 or less; for a household of three including one child, it was $14,480.

Median household income rose by $51, when accounting for inflation, to $43,057 after a slight drop the previous year. Median income refers to the point at which half of households earn more and half earn less.

Robert Greenstein, executive director of the liberal-leaning Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, blamed the increase in poverty on rising unemployment and the government's failure to promote more child tax credits for low-income families and stronger unemployment insurance.

"People at the bottom tend to live paycheck to paycheck", Greenstein said. "This underscores that in trying to stimulate the economy, we should probably be doing more to assist low-income working families affected by the downturn."

However, increases in poverty in 2002 were "not out of the ordinary" for a recession, and not as bad as expected, said Sheldon Danzinger, co-director of the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan.

Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said welfare reform helped keep more single mothers in the labor force - and therefore out of poverty - than in previous economic downturns.

"So now coming out of the recession, in terms of child poverty, it's a very optimistic picture", Rector said. "In terms of the population overall, it looks like an ordinary recession."

According to the Census Bureau's website, Washington was ranked 30^th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, with 10.8% of its population living below the poverty level. Louisiana was highest at 19.1% and New Hampshire was lowest at 6%.

Among counties, King County had 8.9% of its population living below the poverty level, with Pierce County at 11.7% and Snohomish County at 6.2%.

Also yesterday, the Census Bureau reported that the foreign-born population in the U.S. was 33 million in 2002, up 5% from the previous year.

The increase came during a time when the economy was struggling and immigration laws were being more strictly enforced after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In 2002, more than half of the foreign-born, or almost 17.3 million, came from Latin America, the bureau said. That was up about 7% from the previous year.

The bureau offered no estimate of the country's undocumented immigrant totals. Census surveys typically do not ask if a person is in the country illegally.