Last Tuesday, the US Census Bureau released their annual report on poverty. The report gives data on poverty rates by selected characteristics -- age, race, nativity, family composition, work experience, and geography. Findings reveal that the nation's poverty rate dropped from 12.7 percent in 1998 to 11.8 percent in 1999, the lowest rate since 1979. In addition, "real median household income...

A new report released on January 18 from the Economic Policy Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reveals that, despite the strong economy, income disparities in most states are significantly larger in the late 1990s than they were in the 1980s. In all but four states, income disparities between high- and low-income families increased, and in 45 states, "the gap between the...

On November 3, the US Census Bureau released 1996 poverty estimates for three age groups of children and for people of all ages, in each state and the District of Columbia. "The 1996 estimates include the numbers of poor people, poor children under 18, poor children ages 5 to 17 living with a family and poor children under age 5," as well as estimates of median household income. These estimates...

The spatial dimension and geographic variation of poverty has been the subject of great scholarly debate among policy-makers and academics for numerous decades. Some have commented that dense concentrations of underclass persons create a "culture of poverty," while others lay the blame on architects, urban planners, and a host of others. This engaging and useful site is a product of the Bruton...