Two Generations in Poverty: Status and Trends among Parents and Children in the United States, 2000-2010

O The release of the most recent official Census poverty data confirms that American families are still reeling from the Great Recession. As would be expected during a period of sharp economic downturn, between 2009 and 2010, rates of poverty and low-income status increased across a wide spectrum of families in the United States, particularly among those headed by women. In 2010, 15.1 percent of the U.S. population lived in poverty, up from 14.3 percent in 2009.i These numbers reflect broad increases in poverty rates experienced by Blacks, Hispanics and Whites, as well as by all age cohorts, with the exception of adults over age 65. The overall rate of poverty masks much higher rates within particular sub-groups, such as single-mother families, with a poverty rate of 40.7 percent in 2010.