The poverty rate in 2011 was 15.1 percent, much the same as it was last year, the U.S. Census Bureau announced Wednesday.
After climbing for three consecutive years, the poverty rate seems stuck at the highest level in almost two decades, with a whopping 46.2 million people still living in poverty.
In 2011, real median household income was $50,054, a 1.5 percent decline from 2010 median and the second consecutive drop.
For people of color, the data is even more devastating with one out of three Blacks and one out of four Latinos considered poor, according to colorlines.com. Children are hardest hit – one out of five is in poverty below the age of 18 years.
There maybe a bright spot. The Bureau also announced that in 2011, 1.4 million more people had health insurance than the previous year. Healthcare providers say, this is so because of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
