Idaho’s Poverty Rate Continues Its Rise

Idaho’s poverty rate continued its upward climb in 2011, rising to 16.5 percent.  That’s higher than the national rate of people living in poverty, which grew to 15.9 percent.

Put another way, more than 255,000 Idahoans lived below the federal poverty guideline last year.

The state’s poverty rate has climbed each year since 2007, when 12.1 percent of state residents lived below the poverty line.  While the rate grew by 1.4 percent from 2008 to 2009 and again from 2009 to 2010, it grew by less than a percentage point from 2010 to 2011.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

In 2011, the federal poverty guideline was $22,350 for a family of four.  Last year, 7 percent of Idahoans had incomes that amounted to less than 50 percent of the poverty line, according to a Census Bureau report.

The only neighboring state with a higher percentage of people living below the poverty line is Oregon, with a rate of 17.5 percent.

The U.S. Census Bureau released the results of its 2011 American Community Survey last week.  We’re breaking out the findings of that comprehensive survey in sequential posts here on the StateImpact site.