RICHMOND, Va., Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Researchers say the national rate of severe poverty in the United States has increased rapidly since 2000.
The percentage of Americans living in severe poverty -- those earning less than half of the poverty threshold -- grew by 20 percent between 2000 and 2004, up by about 3.6 million people.
"These trends have disturbing implications for society and public health," said Dr. Steven Woolf, a professor of family medicine, epidemiology and community health at Virginia Commonwealth University, and lead author of the study.
The researchers found the only category of U.S. residents to increase in size were those whose earnings were at least $8,000 below the poverty threshold. All other income tiers decreased during the same period.
The poverty threshold in 2004 for a family of four was $19,307.
"The rise in severe poverty is striking children the hardest," said Woolf. His study found children under age 5 were twice as likely to live in severe poverty as the rest of the population. "In 2004, one of three Americans with incomes less than 50 percent of the poverty threshold -- 5.6 million people -- was a child."
The study appears in the October issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
