Fact Sheets: Data at a Glance

Many agree that the official measure of poverty in the United States is flawed. Experts have recommended an alternative measure of poverty that includes all family resources net of taxes and nondiscretionary expenses and updates the thresholds to reflect current spending patterns. This fact sheet describes the official poverty measure and an alternative measure developed by the National Academy of Sciences, and uses data from the 2006 American Community Survey to estimate the extent of poverty in Minnesota under the official and alternative measure.

The recession has increased joblessness among older Americans. These graphs and tables report unemployment rates and how they have varied by age, sex, race, and education since 2007.

Record numbers of older men and women began collecting Social Security benefits in 2009. New awards surged last year partly because the age-62 population grew rapidly. More importantly, older Americans were much more likely to claim Social Security in 2009 than recent previous years, probably because many seniors were unable to find work. Social Security benefits provide an important safety net for unemployed older adults, but early claimants receive permanently reduced benefits, threatening their future economic well-being.

Labor force participation rates have increased sharply for older men and women over the past 16 years. Between 1993 and 2009, the share of adults working or looking for work increased 39 percent for men and 66 percent for women. In 2009, adults age 55 and older made up nearly a fifth of the nation’s labor force, the highest share since 1948 when these records began. The growth in senior participation rates added 3.2 million adults age 62 and older to the nation’s workforce in 2009, compared with the number who would have participated if rates remained at their 1993 levels.

This data appendix includes detailed tables on Americans’ employment and labor force participation by age, sex, education, race, and ethnicity.

Key facts are highlighted from several Urban Institute and Brookings Institution reports on public expenditures on children through 2008. Findings reveal that spending on children increased under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and other stimulus spending, but not proportionately to other federal spending. As ARRA expires, spending on children is projected to decline, assuming no change in current policies. Results also show that states and localities spent more money than the federal government did on children in 2004, except when it came to the youngest children, and that overall public investment (local, state, and federal) increases as children get older.

The retirement savings of American households took a big hit when the stock market crashed in 2008. Recently, however, a good portion of these losses has been reversed. This fact sheet follows trends in retirement account balances since the beginning of 2005.

This fact sheet is the first in a series of publications on children of immigrants in the United States that updates the Urban Institute's May 2006 fact sheet that described the circumstances of these children in the early 2000s. The current fact sheet examines immigration trends and finds that children of immigrants are the fastest growing segment of the nation's children population - while the number of children of natives increased by 2.1 million between 1990 and 2007, children of immigrants grew by 8.1 million accounting for 77 percent of the growth of the U.S. children population during this time.

Slightly more than half of the U.S. population experiences poverty at some time before age 65. Roughly half of those who get out of poverty will become poor again within five years. Who is more likely to enter poverty? How long are people poor? And what events are associated with falling into and climbing out of poverty? This fact sheet summarizes key findings from the poverty dynamics literature to describe how, why, and when people move in and out of poverty.

The stock market lost 56 percent of its value between September 30, 2007, and March 9, 2009. These losses reduced the retirement savings of American households. Recently, however, a good portion of these losses has been reversed. Equities gained 53 percent between March 9, 2009 and August 31, 2009.