Press release

Contact: Mark Levitan
212-614-5422
mlevitan@cssny.org

Poverty Rate for New York City Stuck at 22 Percent

Recent Prosperity Has Yet to Trickle Down the Economic Ladder

August 29, 2006, New York, NY - Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) show that the proportion of the city’s residents living below the federal poverty line in 2005/2004 was 21.6 percent, essentially unchanged from 21.8 percent in 2004/2003.  (The federal poverty line for a family of one adult and two children is $15,735).  The number of New Yorkers current living in poverty is almost 1.7 million, exceeding the population in all but four cities in the United States.

Mark Levitan, PhD., Senior Labor Market Policy Analyst at the Community Service Society, said, “The current economic expansion seems to have halted a four-year rise in New York City’s poverty rate, but for some groups of New Yorkers, the data remain enormously troubling.”  He added, “The city’s prosperity has yet to trickle down to people on the lowest rungs of the income ladder.”

Today’s data derived from the Current Population Survey indicate that poverty rates are still shocking.

• 30.2 percent of the city’s African American and 29.1 percent of New York’s Hispanic population is living in poverty. The poverty rate for non-Hispanic whites is 11.5 percent.
• 31.9 percent of the city’s children are poor; 54.0 percent of children living in single mother families are in poverty.

Within the next two weeks, Dr. Levitan will issue his annual analysis of poverty trends in New York City.  This report places the latest numbers on poverty in the city in the context of the ongoing evolution of the local economy.  The report tracks trends in poverty rates for key groups within the population.  It also compares poverty rates in New York City to those across the nation.

The Community Service Society publishes a number of reports, policy briefs, and fact sheets on poverty trends in New York City available online at: www.cssny.org/pubs/research/poverty.html.

The Community Service Society (CSS) is a leading, independent, nonprofit organization that provides innovative solutions to the most urgent problems facing low-income New Yorkers. Please visit the Community Service Society’s website at www.cssny.org.

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