Poverty In America

By
Courtney Hill
And
Owen Swift

Examining Poverty Rates In America Based On Gender And Ethnicity

What Is The Poverty Line?

By definition, being at the poverty line means meeting certain requirement of how little
money you make. By the governments standards, the poverty line is $23,850 a year for a
family of four. If you are found on or below the line, you are given certain benefits to help
make life a little easier, such as free health care or free lunch at school. But just because you
have some of these supports, doesnt mean it makes life that much easier. The people who
are near the poverty line are most likely struggling to get by on a day to day basis, and
probably need more help to rise above the line than theyre currently given.

Essential Question
We wanted to find out if there are certain groups of people who are more likely to be at or
below the poverty line than others.
Weve found that the two main indicators seem to be gender and ethnicity. Heres how...

Evidence

Key Findings

Looking at this data quickly reveals that the poverty rates of caucasians are much lower than
those of other ethnicities, and that the poverty rates for males are much lower than the rates
for females. One of the most extreme examples of this comes from of the District of
Columbia, where the poverty rate for caucasians is at a scant 5%, while the black poverty
rate is a staggering 36%. Another such example comes from Indiana, where the caucasian
poverty rate is only 9%, while the black and hispanic poverty rates are 27% and 23%,
respectively.
Meanwhile, in Illinois, the male poverty rate is at 10%, while the female poverty rate is at
15%. In an even more staggering example, the male poverty rate in Kentucky is 14%, while
the female poverty rate is 21%, 50% higher than the male rate.

Next Steps
Although there appears to be a stark divide between caucasians and other races, and
between males and females, there is something that we can do about it. By giving schools
and charities that provide assistance the underserved groups additional funding and
donating money to them, we can help give those who are at a disadvantage a better shot
and help close the poverty gap. Additionally, more research and surveying can help fill in the
gaps in the data.

Limitations
There are, unfortunately, a few limitations to our research. As is made obvious by our data
visualizations, several states lacked data on one or more of the groups we examined.
Furthermore, undocumented immigrants are not included in this data, a group that could
dramatically affect the data if they were. In addition, work done under the table, or without
the knowledge of the government, was not counted, as our sources came from government
research.

Resources
http://www.irp.wisc.edu/faqs/faq1.htm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/16/poverty-householdincome_n_5828974.html
http://www.irp.wisc.edu/faqs/faq3.htm
http://www.nccp.org/topics/childpoverty.html
https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/federal-poverty-level-FPL/
http://www.healthedeals.com/articles/your-guide-to-the-federal-poverty-level
http://www.npc.umich.edu/poverty/
http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/poverty-rate-by-raceethnicity/
http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/16/news/economy/median-income-povertyrate-down-census/
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States
http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/adult-poverty-rate-by-gender/
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/report/2008/

10/08/5103/the-straight-facts-on-women-in-poverty/
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitolalert/article2916749.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/25/cities-poverty-rates-lowestcensus_n_1031285.html