New government report: Since 2009, poverty rate hits 47-year high, household income declines, income inequality increases

The percentage of American living below the poverty line has reached 15.9 percent, the nation’s highest level since 1965, and median household income in the U.S. has declined for the second straight year, according to recent reports from the U.S. Census Bureau.

When President Obama took office in January 2009, the nation’s poverty rate was 14.3 percent. The Bureau’s American Community Survey released this week shows that percentage increased to 15.3 percent in 2010 and 15.9 percent in 2011.

The 15.9 percent figure is the highest percentage of Americans living below poverty since 1965, when the rate was 17.3 percent.

At the same time, according to the just-released Current Population Report, in 2011 median household income decreased for the second straight year, by 1.5 percent, and income inequality in America increased by 1.6 percent from 2010 to 2011, the first such annual increase since 1993.

The following table from libertyagainstpower.com shows the change in a number of economic categories since January 2009: