The Nation : Latino Poverty Rate Up, U.S. Level Down

The U.S. poverty rate in 1985 registered an overall decline but the poverty rate for America’s 18 million Latinos is at a historic high, the Census Bureau said. In the government’s latest study on U.S. poverty, “Characteristics of the Population Below the Poverty Level,” the bureau said there were 33.1 million Americans living in poverty in 1985, a rate of 14%, slightly lower than the 1984 estimate of 14.4%. The government set the poverty line for a family of four at $10,989 annual income. The report said the number of poor Latinos hit a historic high in 1985--16% of the total number of Americans living in poverty, up from 11% in 1979, with about 5.3 million Latinos living below the poverty level. Among blacks, the 8.9 million poor in 1985 represented 27% of the poverty population, down from 31% in 1979.