November 14, 2021

World Day of the Poor

WHO LIVES IN POVERTY USA?

All those who make less than the Federal government’s official poverty threshold which for a family of four is about $25,700. People working at minimum wage, even holding down multiple jobs. Seniors living on fixed incomes. Wage-earners suddenly out of work. Millions of families everywhere from our cities to rural communities.

Poverty does not strike all demographics equally. For example, in 2018, 10.6% of men, and 12.9% of women lived in Poverty USA. Along the same lines, the poverty rate for married couples in 2018 was only 4.7% – but the poverty rate for single-parent families with no wife present was 12.7%, and for single-parent families with no husband present was 24.9%.

In 2018, the poverty rate for people living with a disability was 25.7%. That’s nearly 4 million people living with a disability—in poverty.
Learn more about how you can encounter, educate and act at PovertyUSA.org

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Prayer for the Poor

God of Justice, open our eyes to see you
in the face of the poor. Open our ears
to hear you in the cries of the exploited. Open our mouths to defend you in
the public squares as well as in private
deeds. Remind us that what we do to
the least ones, we do to you. Amen.

View or download prayer | en español

 


Article :Sources: How the US Census Measures Poverty, US Census Bureau; Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2019, US Census Bureau (p. 18-19).
CNS photo/Ron Wu, Catholic Extension Copyright © 2021, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC. All rights reserved.
Prayer: Prayer taken from from Being Neighbor, the Catechism and Social Justice, Catholic Campaign for Human Development, copyright © 1998, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC. All rights reserved.