Yesterday, the U.S. Census Bureau released the new report Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010. The report found that in 2010, the median household income declined 2.3 percent to $49,445; the poverty rate rose to 15.1 percent, with 46.2 million people living in poverty; and the percentage of people without health insurance remained steady from 2009.
Since its release, The Women’s Foundation staff has been combing through the 87 page report, looking at the local impact, particularly on women-headed families.
“The big takeaway is that the number of female-headed households with related children under 18 living in poverty rose to 40.7 percent,” says Gwen Rubinstein, program officer at The Women’s Foundation. “That’s compared to an 8.8 percent poverty rate for married-couple households.”
The median income for women-headed families decreased by 3.3 percent, from $33,135 to $32,031.
Rubinstein also notes that:
- 19.9% of DC residents were living in poverty in 2010, compared to 17.9% in 2009;
- DC has the third-highest poverty rate in the nation (behind Mississippi at 22.7% and Louisiana at 21.6%);
- the poverty rate in Maryland rose from 9.6% in 2009 to 10.8% in 2010;
- the poverty rate in Virginia did not change;
- median income has stagnated across our region;
- and, the percentage of Virginia residents without health insurance rose from 12.6% in 2009 to 14.1% in 2010.
Washington Area Women’s Foundation will be working with Grantee Partner The Urban Institute to continue to review and interpret data from the new report and provide updates on the ways in which these statistics impact our community and what they mean for our work. Stay tuned for more… and to review the report yourself, please click here.
