US admits nearly 36 million live below poverty line

SOME 1.3 million Americans slid into poverty in 2003 as the ranks of the poor swelled to 35.9 million, with children and blacks worse off than most, the US government said yesterday.

The facts were revealed in a report sure to fuel Democratic criticism of President George W Bush.

Despite the economic recovery, the percentage of the US population living in poverty rose to 12.5% - the highest since 1998 - from 12.1% in 2002, the Census Bureau said in its annual poverty report. The report showed one-third of those in poverty were children.

The number of US residents without health care coverage also rose to the highest level since 1999, while incomes stagnated.

The poverty line is set at an annual income of $9,573 or less for an individual, or $18,660 for a family of four with two children. Under that measure, a family would spend about a third of its income on food.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has argued Bush’s economic stewardship, including three rounds of tax cuts since 2001, has done more to help wealthy Americans than the poor or middle class.

But analysts have said the poverty rate typically tracks the broad economy, rising during a recession and falling in boom times. America has struggled to recover from the 2001 slump, and job creation has lagged behind overall growth.

The poverty rate has risen each year since 2000, when it was 11.3%. It hit a record low of 11.1% in 1973.

Children and most racial minorities again fared worse in 2003 than the overall population, according to the Census report. The rate of child poverty rose to 17.6% from 16.7% in 2002 - boosting the number of poor children to 12.9 million.

The poverty rate of African Americans remained nearly twice the national rate, with 24.4% of blacks living below the poverty line in 2003.

The report also showed the number of Americans with no health care coverage rose to 45.0 million from 43.6 million in 2002.

Democrats criticised the government’s decision to release the highly anticipated report in mid-August, when many people are on vacation. They also said the decision to release both the health insurance and poverty statistics in the same report was a bid to minimise media coverage of the worsening lives of the poor.