This image is taken from the United States Census Bureau and
illustrates ‘Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates’ of 2014. What is most striking
about this image is how it has been filtered to show states where there were at
least 15% of people living in poverty. The demographic trends of the map indicate
that the southern States, such as Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana hold a disproportionate
percentage of families living in poverty, in comparison to the more central and
northern States.
According to the Huffington Post, in 2013 there were 45
million Americans living below the poverty line. There are important economic
factors that have a significant impact on poverty trends, including unemployment,
low-pay, the rise in single parent households, and race.
When taking a closer look at the impact of poverty in
families in America, it has had a significant impact on children, where approximately
1 in every 5 children under 18, live in poverty. When focussing on race in the
demographic trends, nearly 40% of African-American children and over 1/3 of Hispanic
children live in poverty in America. Both the map and these statistics present
a very surprising nature of American society where a nation with the highest
GDP in the world, has so many people living in challenging circumstances. The
impact of poverty in the US was perhaps highlighted best by CNN, who reported
that circa six million people in the
US have no other income but food stamps, which is currently only $6,300 per
annum for a family of three.
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/why-cant-we-end-poverty-in-america.html
http://www.census.gov/did/www/saipe/data/interactive/saipe.html?s_appName=saipe&map_yearSelector=2014&map_geoSelector=aa_c
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