[Announce] Oklahoma Poverty Rate is Soaring

[Robert Waldrop]

>From Tulsa's Community Action Project. . . If you 
go to their website, http://www.okpolicy.org/ , 
there is a link to a PDF version of this article 
with some graphs illustrating the statistics 
discussed below.  RMW

August 29, 2006

Census Bureau Shows State Poverty Rate at Ten-Year 
High
High Rates of Poverty, Uninsured Show Many Being 
Left Behind

 New data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau 
reveals an alarming increase in the number of 
Oklahomans living in poverty, according to a press 
release issued by Community Action Project (CAP).

The annual "Poverty Day" data released by the 
Census Bureau reveals that:

+ Over the period of 2005-06, an average of 15.4% 
of Oklahomans lived below the federal poverty 
level. This is up sharply from 13.2% in 2004-05 
and 11.8% in 2003-04;

+ Oklahoma's rising poverty trend differs from the 
nation's as a whole; nationally, poverty rates 
have declined modestly the past two years;

+ At 15.4%, Oklahoma's most recent poverty rate is 
at a ten-year peak;

+ An average of 537,000 Oklahomans have been 
living in poverty the past two years;

+ County-level data reveals that Oklahoma County 
is suffering the worst concentration of poverty of 
the state's metropolitan counties, with 22.1% of 
the county's residents falling below the poverty 
line in 2006;

+ Median household income in Oklahoma in 2006 was 
$38,276, which is $10,175, or 21% below the 
national median household income;

+ The Census Bureau today also released data on 
health insurance coverage revealing that an 
average of 650,000 Oklahomans, or 18.7%, were 
without health insurance for the period from 
2004-06.

These numbers should sound the alarm that our 
economy, while continuing to show signs of overall 
strength, is leaving far too many Oklahomans 
behind. We hope that state policymakers will ask 
the tough questions about why families are failing 
to earn a decent living and will undertake an 
aggressive effort to bolster assistance and expand 
opportunities for low- and moderate-income 
families.

CAP Press Release: Census Data Shows Poverty 
Soaringin Oklahoma

National Trends and Data

Nationally, the Census Bureau found a modest 0.7% 
rise in median household income and a 0.3% decline 
in the poverty rate. The Center on Budget and 
Policy Priorities notes that in 2006, the poverty 
rate remained higher, and median income for 
non-elderly households remained $1,300 lower, than 
in 2001, when the last recession hit bottom. It is 
virtually unprecedented for poverty to be higher 
and the income of working-age households lower in 
the fifth year of a recovery than in the last year 
of the previous recession.

Perhaps of greatest concern, the number of 
Americans without health insurance increased by 
2.2 million in 2006, and the number of uninsured 
children jumped by more than 600,000. The steady 
progress of recent years in reducing the number of 
uninsured children stalled in 2005 and began to 
reverse in 2006, in part because funding for the 
State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) 
grew scarcer.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Analysis of 
Census Report
U.S. Census Bureau - Income, Poverty and Health 
Insurance Information


email: dblatt at captc.org
phone: (918) 382-3228
web: http://www.okpolicy.org  Community Action 
Project is a Tulsa-based comprehensive 
anti-poverty agency whose mission is to help 
individuals and families in need achieve self- 
sufficiency. CAP's public policy department aims 
to promote policies that will benefit low- and 
moderate- income Oklahomans through research, 
education and advocacy.

Community Action Project | 4606 S. Garnett | Suite 
100 | Tulsa | OK | 74146







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