Understanding Poverty

HIGHLIGHTS

  • What is Poverty in America? What is Poverty in America?

    For decades, the U.S. Census Bureau has reported that over 30 million Americans were living in “poverty,” but the bureau’s definition of poverty differs widely from that held by most Americans. Read More.

  • Hunger Hysteria Hunger Hysteria

    Contrary to the claims of poverty advocates, the major dietary problem facing poor Americans is too much, not too little, food. Public policies should be directed toward encouraging the poor to avoid chronic over-consumption, exercise more, and reduce intake of foods rich in fat and added sugar. Read More.

  • Obamas New Poverty Measurement Obamas New Poverty Measurement

    The Obama administration announced it will create a new poverty-measurement system that will eventually displace the current poverty measure. This new measure, which has little or nothing to do with actual poverty, will serve as the propaganda tool in Obama’s endless quest to “spread the wealth.” Read More.

Our Research & Offerings on Understanding Poverty
  • Commentary posted February 7, 2012 by Robert Rector The Facts About Poverty in America

    Mitt Romney declared last week that, if elected president, he would focus on restoring the fortunes of the middle class, not the poor.  In a widely circulated remark, Romney said in an interview on CNN: “I’m not concerned about the very poor.  We have a safety net there.  If it…

  • Commentary posted December 21, 2011 by Robert Rector Team O’s ‘Poor’ Trick

    New Yorkers can be forgiven for shock at the newspaper headlines last week informing them that millions more of them were “near poor” or “low income.” They might relax a bit on learning that the “root cause” is simply new definition of poverty from the Census Bureau. …

  • Commentary posted December 11, 2011 by Robert Rector, Rachel Sheffield Poor or Not? Marriage Makes the Difference

    Poverty and inequality in America are hot topics these days, and not just among the Occupy Wall Street crowd. Yet amid all the chatter, hardly anyone talks about the greatest driver of poverty: the rapidly rising number of babies born to unmarried mothers. Today, over 40 percent…

  • Commentary posted November 11, 2011 by Robert Rector, Rachel Sheffield Worse Than Useless Measure of Poverty

    On Monday, the Census Bureau released a new poverty measure created by the Obama administration. Using this new calculation, Census officials assert that more than 49 million Americans are poor -- roughly 3 million more than they reported in September’s annual poverty report. The news…

  • Commentary posted November 9, 2011 by Robert Rector, Rachel Sheffield Obama’s New Poverty Measure ‘Spreads the Wealth’

    On Monday, the Census Bureau released a new poverty measure created by the Obama administration. Based on this new calculation, census officials assert that more than 49 million Americans are poor — roughly 3 million more than they reported in September’s annual poverty report. The news was previewed last week…

  • Commentary posted October 13, 2011 by Jennifer Marshall It Takes a Mayor

    “Many saw me as an unlikely urban champion,” admits Rick Baker, who served two terms as mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida’s fourth-largest city, and was named Governing magazine’s top mayor in 2008. Mayor Baker isn’t just being humble. He’s a social and economic conservative. Conservatives generally aren’t known for leading…

  • Commentary posted September 13, 2011 by Robert Rector, Rachel Sheffield Strange Facts about America’s ‘Poor’

    This morning, the Census Bureau announced that a record 46.2 million, or one in seven Americans, lived in poverty last year. Although the current recession greatly increased the number of poor persons, high levels of poverty predate it. In fact, for two decades, census officials have announced…

  • Commentary posted September 13, 2011 by Robert Rector, Rachel Sheffield Understanding Poverty in the U.S.

    The U.S. Census Bureau’s annual poverty report, released this morning, found that 46.2 million Americans, or one in seven of us, were poor in 2010. The prolonged recession, with its high levels of unemployment, clearly has swollen the ranks of the poor. But high numbers for poverty…

  • Backgrounder posted September 13, 2011 by Robert Rector, Rachel Sheffield Understanding Poverty in the United States: Surprising Facts About America's Poor

    Executive Summary Today, the Census Bureau released its annual poverty report, which declared that a record 46.2 million persons, or roughly one in seven Americans, were poor in 2010. The numbers were up sharply from the previous year’s total of…

  • Commentary posted August 8, 2011 by Jennifer Marshall Poverty and Stewardship

    "God is watching." A liberal Christian group sent that warning in an ad addressed to Congress and President Barack Obama during the recent debt fight. “The Bible teaches that God is watching to see how the poor fare under the decisions of the politically powerful,” the ad…

View All
Find more work on Understanding Poverty
  • Backgrounder posted September 13, 2011 by Robert Rector, Rachel Sheffield Understanding Poverty in the United States: Surprising Facts About America's Poor

    Executive Summary Today, the Census Bureau released its annual poverty report, which declared that a record 46.2 million persons, or roughly one in seven Americans, were poor in 2010. The numbers were up sharply from the previous year’s total of…

  • Backgrounder posted January 5, 2004 by Robert Rector, Kirk Johnson, Ph.D. Understanding Poverty in America

    This key research from 2004 has been updated in Robert Rector's new paper, How Poor Are America's Poor? Examining the "Plague" of Poverty in AmericaEach year, the U.S. Census Bureau counts the number of "poor" persons in the U.S. In 2005, the Bureau found 37 million "poor" Americans. Presidential…

  • Backgrounder posted August 27, 2007 by Robert Rector How Poor Are America's Poor? Examining the "Plague" of Poverty in America

    Poverty is an important and emotional issue. Last year, the Census Bureau released its annual report on poverty in the United States declaring that there were 37 million poor persons living in this country in 2005, roughly the same number as in the preceding years.[4] According to…

  • Backgrounder posted September 18, 1998 by Robert Rector The Myth of Widespread American Poverty

    In the last week of September, the U.S. Census Bureau will issue its annual report on the number of Americans who are "living in poverty." Census Bureau poverty reports vary little from year to year. For the past decade, the Census Bureau has declared that between 31.5 million and 39 million persons were living…

  • Lecture posted July 29, 1992 by The Honorable William Barr Crime, Poverty and the Familiy

    I don't have to tell you that things are at a critical juncture in our country when it comes to violent crime. We find violence now running at intolerably high levels. The heyday of violent crime was actually in the 1960s and 1970s, and I will describe it in more detail later. It peaked…

  • Commentary posted February 7, 2012 by Robert Rector The Facts About Poverty in America

    Mitt Romney declared last week that, if elected president, he would focus on restoring the fortunes of the middle class, not the poor.  In a widely circulated remark, Romney said in an interview on CNN: “I’m not concerned about the very poor.  We have a safety net there.  If it…

  • Backgrounder posted September 21, 1990 by Robert Rector How "Poor" are America's Poor?

    Introduction Next week the United States Census Bureau will release its annual report on "poverty" stating, as it has for many years, that there are some 31 million to 32 million poor Americans, a number greater than in 1965 when the War on Poverty began. Evidence mounts, however, that the Census Bureau's poverty report dramatically understates…

  • Testimony posted September 25, 2008 by Robert Rector Understanding and Reducing Poverty in America

    Testimony before Joint Economic Committee United States Senate Delivered on September 25, 2008 My name is Robert Rector. I am a Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation. I am honored to have the opportunity to discuss poverty and poverty reduction at this hearing. The views…

  • Executive Summary posted January 5, 2004 by Robert Rector, Kirk Johnson, Ph.D. Executive Summary: Understanding Poverty in America

    If poverty means lacking nutritious food, adequate warm housing, and clothing for a family, relatively few of the 35 million people identified as being "in poverty" by the Census Bureau could be characterized as poor. While material hardship does exist in the United States, it is quite restricted in scope and severity. …

  • Backgrounder on September 15, 2004 Understanding Poverty and Economic Inequality in the United States

    On August 26, the U.S. Census Bureau released annual poverty figures showing that the percentage of persons who are poor rose from 12.1 percent in 2002 to 12.5 percent in 2003.1 It is important to recognize that the recently released census poverty figures are one year old. They cover…

Find more work on Understanding Poverty
View All
Find more work on Understanding Poverty
Other Topics Related to Understanding Poverty
Our Work
View All
View All
View All
ABOUT The HERITAGE FOUNDATION

The Heritage Foundation is the nation’s most broadly supported public policy research institute, with nearly 700,000 individual, foundation and corporate donors. Heritage, founded in February 1973, a staff of 275 and an annual expense budget of $82.4 million.

Our mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. Read More

Our Initiatives
especially for
 
receive updates & newsletters

Receive updates from Heritage about current events and initiatives in your email inbox

http://www.heritage.org/issues/poverty-and-inequality/understanding-poverty?fb=true#foot_anchor

© 2012, The Heritage Foundation
Conservative policy research since 1973