Statistics

"The poverty rate increased from 12.5% to 13.2% between 2007 and 2008, representing an additional 2.6 million people living in poverty. The large increase in poverty suggests that as anti-poverty policies have come to depend more on paid work as the main pathway out of poverty, the safety net has become less effective in reducing economic hardship when the economy and job market are underperforming.

The poverty rate for children was 19.0% in 2008, representing 14.1 million kids living in poverty. In 2008, over one-third (35.3%) of all people living in poverty were children.

Hispanics and Asians were particularly hard-hit by increases in poverty in 2008, increasing by 1.6 and 1.4 percentage points, respectively, from 2007 to 2008.

In 2008, over one-third (33.9%) of all black children and nearly one-third (30.6%) of all Hispanic children were living in poverty (increases of 0.2 and 2.0 percentage points, respectively, since 2007).

In 2008, 37.2% of all families headed by single mothers were living in poverty (up 0.2 percentage points from 2007). In 2008, of the 8.1 million families living in poverty, 3.6 million of them were headed by a single mom."

http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/income_picture_20090910/

Manchester, NH poverty data:

http://www.city-data.com/poverty/poverty-Manchester-New-Hampshire.html

Culhane Dennis. “Summer 2009 Research Newsletter” National Alliance to End Homelessness. 6 Aug 2009. http://www.endhomelessness.org/content/article/detail/2470

Shierholz Heidi. “New poverty, income data reveal only tip of the recession iceberg.” 10 Sept 2009. Economic Policy Institute. http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/income_picture_20090910/