Poverty Increasing in the United States

Washington - Poverty in the United States continues to increase. Even the number of U.S. citizens who live in extreme poverty has increased by more than a third in the last decade.

According to a Brookings Institution study as reported by AFP news agency on Friday (4/11/2011), in a decade, the number of U.S. citizens living below the federal poverty line - which in 2010 defined as those with revenues of U.S. $ 22,314 for a family consisting of four men - has increased by 12.3 million people.

According to latest reports, the total number of Americans living in poverty has now reached 46.2 million people, equivalent to more than 15 percent of the U.S. population.

According to the Brookings report, residents in the neighborhood are very poor - where at least 40 percent of the population live below the poverty line - has increased one-third from 2000 to 2009, although this increase is not the same throughout the United States.

While concentrated poverty almost doubled in U.S. cities such as Detroit, Michigan, Dayton, Ohio and one-third increase in other U.S. cities such as Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jackson and Mississippi.

"This trend suggests that a strong economy in the late 1990s does not permanently solve the challenges of concentrated poverty," according to Brookings.

Brookings study is based on data from the 2000-2009 income year the U.S. Census Bureau.