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Poverty in South America and USA

Poverty in South America

In Latin America (Central America, South America, and the Caribbean), the poorest people are commonly Native American, people of African ancestry, and mestizos (persons of mixed Native American and European ancestry). People of European descent who live in Latin America generally have higher standards of living. Political instability has contributed to poverty in many Latin American countries, including Chile, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Panama. These countries have gone through long periods of military rule or dictatorship in which leaders have hoarded land and natural resources and impaired people’s ability to make an adequate living. For many years the Caribbean country of Haiti has suffered economically from the effects of both political upheaval and environmental degradation. Brazil has the greatest number of people living in poverty in all of Latin America. This is in part because of its size, but also because of encroachment by urban populations on the land and forest resources of its many native peoples. Large-scale urban poverty, marked by crowded and unsanitary slums, plagues cities such as Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and Mexico City. It is estimated that slightly more than 60 million people in this region of the world lived in extreme poverty in 1998.

Poverty in USA

In 2001 the Census Bureau reported about 33 million residents living in poverty in the United States, or about 12 percent of the total population. About 6.8 million families, or 9 percent of all U.S. families, lived in poverty in 2001. These poverty rates were similar to those of the 1970s, but were about half of the historically high rates of the early 1960s. While little seems to have changed in aggregate, or total, levels of U.S. poverty since the 1970s, the composition of the people living in poverty has changed significantly. That is, the probability of being poor has changed significantly across demographic groups, which are based on age, race, family status, and geographic location. Some groups of people are now much more likely to be poor than in the past while other groups are less likely to be poor.

The census divides the total U.S. population into three basic age groups: children (up through 17 years of age), prime-aged adults (18 years to 64 years), and the elderly (65 years of age and over). About 16 percent of children were poor in 2001, more than in any other age group. Poverty among prime-aged adults, who generally work, has fluctuated with changes in the U.S. economy. In 1996, when the economy was performing well, about 10 percent of prime-aged adults lived in poverty. The numbers of elderly living in poverty dropped dramatically between 1959 and 2001, from over 30 percent to around 10 percent.

Higher percentages of people are poor in the southern and western parts of the country than in the Northeast and Midwest. One reason for this difference may be that the South and West contain more, and more sparsely populated, rural areas, which have fewer higher wage jobs. Poverty is more prevalent in rural areas, and also in central cities, than it is in suburbs. Although pockets of high poverty exist, poor people live in all areas of the United States.

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Child Poverty in USA - the facts

• Children under age 6 living in poverty families with a female householder and no husband present: 54.8 percent
• Children under age 6 living in poverty in married-couple families: 10.1 percent
• Poverty rate for African Americans: 26.1 percent
• Poverty rate for Asians and Pacific Islanders: 12.5 percent
• Poverty rate for Hispanics of any race: 25.6 percent
• Poverty rate for non-Hispanic whites: 8.2 percent
• Percentage and number of poor children: 18.9 percent (13.5 million)
• Children make up 39 percent of the poor and 26 percent of the total population.
• The poverty rate for children is higher than for any other age group.

Domestic poverty knows no geographical barriers, but it is especially widespread in New York City. The latest study released in 1995 by the Citizens Committee for Children of New York reveals that New York children fare worse in virtually every category than their counterparts at the state and national level. This includes low birth weight, infant mortality, violence-related deaths, abuse and neglect, education, and job preparedness.

Life for New York City children is getting worse:
• 25% of New Yorkers are children.
• 762,000 children live in poverty.
• 181 babies are born into poverty each day.
• 10,000 children are homeless. This number has doubled since 1988.

In addition to these sad statistics, many New York City children read and do math below grade level. An estimated 38.9% of the city's school children will graduate high school, compared to 68.8% for all American students.

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One in Five Children in Rural America Lives in Poverty

New metropolitan area definitions from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget draw attention to the critical needs of children living in remote areas (see Figure 1). Under the old (1999) definitions, the child poverty rate in metropolitan counties was 16 percent, compared with 19 percent for children in no metropolitan counties. Under the new definitions, the child poverty rate in 1999 was 21 percent in rural areas and 16 percent in metropolitan areas. A new category, "micropolitan" fell in between, with a child poverty rate of 18 percent. This national pattern was replicated in most of the states. There were only seven states where nonmetro child poverty rates did not exceed the rates in both metropolitan and micropolitan areas.

Most states that had high rural child poverty rates also had relatively high rates in metro areas. But in a few states, including Arizona, Kentucky, and North Dakota, the child poverty rate in the nonmetro portion of the state was twice as high as the metro rate (see Table 1). In South Dakota, the child poverty rate in nonmetro areas (29 percent) was nearly three times the rate in metro counties (11 percent).

It is not immediately clear what economic, demographic, and policy factors lead to these striking differences within states. In the case of South Dakota, most of the nonmetro counties are within or adjacent to American Indian reservations. Excluding micropolitan counties from nonmetro areas, as the new definitions do, causes South Dakota's rural child poverty rate to increase by more than a third. At the state level, child poverty rates in South Dakota and elsewhere have decreased in recent years, but child poverty rates in rural areas have remained unacceptably high. Although the new metropolitan area definitions have complicated analyses of rural/urban differences, they underscore the urgency of assistance to rural children.

Table 1
Children Living in Poverty, by State and Metropolitan Area Status, 1999

Note: Metropolitan and micropolitan counties are classified based on 2003 OMB definitions. There are a few states without any micropolitan and/or nonmetropolitan counties. Data for nonmetropolitan Hawaii are not shown because of the small sample size.
Source: Population Reference Bureau, analysis of data from the 2000 Census.

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Sources:
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761577020_5/Poverty.html
www.soundvision.com
http://www.heartsandminds.org/self/index.htm
http://www.prb.org/template.cfm?Section=Training

Facts About Child Poverty

Child Poverty in Asia Widespread poverty and ignorance are forcing more than half the number of children of Danuwar community at Bhimtar village in Sindhupalchok out of schools. Read more how children in Asia live in poverty. Read More

Child Poverty in Australia Australia also is not immune to child poverty. One in seven Australian children are battling the disadvantages of poverty. More information if you click the link.   Read More

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