3 in 10 Americans Face Poverty, Study Says

Poverty is a reality for three in 10 Americans, but for most of them, it’s short-lived, the Census Bureau reports.

A new study by the bureau takes an unusually deep look at poverty in the United States, using seven measures to paint a picture more complex than any one statistic might suggest.

Over a three-year span, 30.3% of the population lived below the poverty line for at least two months. But just 5.3% of them stayed poor for two full years.

“These statistics portray poverty as a trapdoor for a few and a revolving door for many,” explained the report, which examined data from 1993 to 1995.

The government considers a three-person family poor if its income is below $13,650; for a four-person family, it’s $16,450.

In 1994, on average, 15.4% of Americans were poor each month, and about 22%--or 55 million people--were poor for at least two months in 1994.

Nearly half of them stayed poor for just two to four months. About 13% were poor for more than two years.

On average, people were poor for 4 1/2 months.

But the rates differ significantly by race and family structure. Blacks, Latinos and children are among the poorest groups in the nation.

But the most likely to be poor were families headed by single mothers: In 1994, nearly half of the female-headed households lived in poverty for at least two months in a row, more than three times the poverty rate of married couples.

The difference was even more dramatic among the chronically poor. Single moms were eight times as likely to live in poverty for two years than married couples were to be poor for at least two years.

“You can’t understate the role of family structure,” said Robert I. Lerman, an economist at the Urban Institute who studies poverty issues.

Children are most likely to be poor, no matter what the measure. And the elderly, once the poorest Americans, are now the least likely to live in poverty, thanks to Social Security and Medicare.