Poverty Rates by Race and Ethnic Origin, 1970–2011 Poverty rates vary considerably along racial and ethnic lines. Over most of this period, the poverty rate for blacks and Hispanics was roughly twice the rate for whites. Both of these minority groups benefited, however, from the strong economic growth of the 1990s, their poverty rates dropping from around 30% at the beginning of the decade to around 25% today. White poverty remained fairly steady over the 1990s, fluctuating between 10% and 11%, but rose above 12% after the 2007–2009 recession.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P60-243, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance in the United States: 2011 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office), 2012.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P60-243, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance in the United States: 2011 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office), 2012.
Andrew Lichenstein/Corbis