One in four Latinos is among the poorest group in the United States but that percentage dropped last year, according to recent information from the U.S. Census bureau.
The number of Hispanics in poverty in the US fell by 1.2 percent from 2010 to 2011, according to a Fox Latino News article. The Census report is a picture of the economic status of Latino households for 2011. The report shows persistently high unemployment among Latinos with a growing gap between the rich and poor increased in the last year, according to two major census measures. The median household income dropped 1.5 percent to $50,054, a second year of decline.
The number of Latinos in poverty fell from 13,522,000 to 13,244,000. The poverty rate for Latinos dropped from 26.5 percent to 25.3. By comparison, the nation’s overall rate was 15 percent.
The median household income decrease last year of 0.5 percent for Latinos was the the smallest drop of any group. The release of the Census report coincides with the upcoming general election and President Barack Obama’s efforts to promote the labor market, as being still wounded but, on the right track, according to the article.
The official poverty line last year was an annual income of $23,021 for a family of four. Roughly 46.2 million people remained below the poverty line, unchanged from 2010, the highest in more than half a century. New Mexico had the highest share of poor people, at 22.2 percent, according to the Census Bureau. It was followed by Louisiana, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, Arkansas and Georgia.
