1.46 million households live at $2 or less in income per day
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—One in five households with children in poverty are surviving on the cash equivalent of a half gallon of milk per person per day in a given month. The National Poverty Center has released a new report that examines poverty trends between 1996 and 2011. The number of households with children who are in extreme poverty in a given month—living at $2 or less in income per person per day—in 2011 totaled roughly 1.46 million households, including 2.8 million kids. This number is up from 636,000 households in 1996, nearly a 130 percent increase.
Source: H. Luke Shaefer, and Kathryn Edin, "Extreme Poverty in the United States, 1996 to 2011," Policy Brief #28, National Poverty Center. February, 2012. http://npc.umich.edu/publications/policy_briefs/brief28/policybrief28.pdf [verified 4/22/14]