In 2023, **** percent of Black people living in the United States were living below the poverty line, compared to *** percent of white people. That year, the total poverty rate in the U.S. across all races and ethnicities was **** percent. Poverty in the United States Single people in the United States making less than ****** U.S. dollars a year and families of four making less than ****** U.S. dollars a year are considered to be below the poverty line. Women and children are more likely to suffer from poverty, due to women staying home more often than men to take care of children, and women suffering from the gender wage gap. Not only are women and children more likely to be affected, racial minorities are as well due to the discrimination they face. Poverty data Despite being one of the wealthiest nations in the world, the United States had the third highest poverty rate out of all OECD countries in 2019. However, the United States' poverty rate has been fluctuating since 1990, but has been decreasing since 2014. The average median household income in the U.S. has remained somewhat consistent since 1990, but has recently increased since 2014 until a slight decrease in 2020, potentially due to the pandemic. The state that had the highest number of people living below the poverty line in 2020 was California.

In 2023, 15.4 percent of Black families were living below the poverty line in the United States. Poverty is the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing, and shelter.

Access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa was set to decrease in 2021. Some 597 million people did not have electricity connections in the region that year, while in 2020 electrical energy was inaccessible to 581 million Africans. This means that around five out of every 10 individuals below the Sahara lived in the dark. In rural areas, the situation was even worse: over 70 percent of the population lacked access to electricity. Among Africa’s regions, Central and West Africa registered the most dramatic scenario, with electrification covering less than half of the population.

A new challenge for electrification progress

From 2000 to 2013, the number of people without electricity in sub-Saharan Africa increased annually, peaking at some 612 million individuals. This trend changed, however, between 2014 and 2019. During this period, few countries increased the accessibility to electrical energy, improving the overall conditions in the region. For instance, the access rate in Kenya reached nearly 70 percent – against 36 percent in 2014. Nevertheless, the electrification progress in sub-Saharan Africa has been afterward jeopardized by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The economic crisis triggered by the disease worsened the poverty level in Africa, leaving households in vulnerability and unable to afford electrical energy.

Renewables as a path to fight energy poverty

Investments in renewable technologies may play a key role in improving access to electricity in Africa. The continent has abundant hydro, solar, wind, and bioenergy resources. In fact, renewable energy capacity on the continent almost doubled in the last ten years. Similarly, the number of Africans connected to solar mini grids strongly increased, although it still covers a small share of the entire population – revealing a potential for growth in the coming years.

In 2025, nearly 11.7 percent of the world population in extreme poverty, with the poverty threshold at 2.15 U.S. dollars a day, lived in Nigeria. Moreover, the Democratic Republic of the Congo accounted for around 11.7 percent of the global population in extreme poverty. Other African nations with a large poor population were Tanzania, Mozambique, and Madagascar. Poverty levels remain high despite the forecast decline Poverty is a widespread issue across Africa. Around 429 million people on the continent were living below the extreme poverty line of 2.15 U.S. dollars a day in 2024. Since the continent had approximately 1.4 billion inhabitants, roughly a third of Africa’s population was in extreme poverty that year. Mozambique, Malawi, Central African Republic, and Niger had Africa’s highest extreme poverty rates based on the 2.15 U.S. dollars per day extreme poverty indicator (updated from 1.90 U.S. dollars in September 2022). Although the levels of poverty on the continent are forecast to decrease in the coming years, Africa will remain the poorest region compared to the rest of the world. Prevalence of poverty and malnutrition across Africa Multiple factors are linked to increased poverty. Regions with critical situations of employment, education, health, nutrition, war, and conflict usually have larger poor populations. Consequently, poverty tends to be more prevalent in least-developed and developing countries worldwide. For similar reasons, rural households also face higher poverty levels. In 2024, the extreme poverty rate in Africa stood at around 45 percent among the rural population, compared to seven percent in urban areas. Together with poverty, malnutrition is also widespread in Africa. Limited access to food leads to low health conditions, increasing the poverty risk. At the same time, poverty can determine inadequate nutrition. Almost 38.3 percent of the global undernourished population lived in Africa in 2022.

Between 2019 and 2023, people living in households in the Asian and ‘Other’ ethnic groups were most likely to be in persistent low income before and after housing costs

For the past several censuses, the Census Bureau has invited people to self-respond before following up in-person using census takers. The 2010 Census invited people to self-respond predominately by returning paper questionnaires in the mail. The 2020 Census allows people to self-respond in three ways: online, by phone, or by mail.The 2020 Census self-response rates are self-response rates for current census geographies. These rates are the daily and cumulative self-response rates for all housing units that received invitations to self-respond to the 2020 Census. The 2020 Census self-response rates are available for states, counties, census tracts, congressional districts, towns and townships, consolidated cities, incorporated places, tribal areas, and tribal census tracts.The Self-Response Rate of Los Angeles County is 65.1% for 2020 Census, which is slightly lower than 69.6% of California State rate.More information about these data is available in the Self-Response Rates Map Data and Technical Documentation document associated with the 2020 Self-Response Rates Map or review FAQs.Animated Self-Response Rate 2010 vs 2020 is available at ESRI site SRR Animated Maps and can explore Census 2020 SRR data at ESRI Demographic site Census 2020 SSR Data.Following Demographic Characteristics are included in this data and web maps to visualize their relationships with Census Self-Response Rate (SRR).1. Population Density: 2020 Population per square mile,2. Poverty Rate: Percentage of population under 100% FPL,3. Median Household income: Based on countywide median HH income of $71,538.4. Highschool Education Attainment: Percentage of 18 years and older population without high school graduation.5. English Speaking Ability: Percentage of 18 years and older population with less or none English speaking ability. 6. Household without Internet Access: Percentage of HH without internet access.7. Non-Hispanic White Population: Percentage of Non-Hispanic White population.8. Non-Hispanic African-American Population: Percentage of Non-Hispanic African-American population.9. Non-Hispanic Asian Population: Percentage of Non-Hispanic Asian population.10. Hispanic Population: Percentage of Hispanic population.

In 2023, the unemployment rate of African Americans in the United States stood at 5.5 percent. This was over the national average of 3.6 percent.

The high rate of unemployment

There are many reasons why the unemployment rate among minorities is different than the national average. When it comes to African Americans, a large part of this is due to historical events, such as slavery and the struggle for civil rights, as well as the number of Black families living below the poverty level. Additionally, in 2019, for every 100,000 of the population, there were 2,203 Black men in prison. This high rate of imprisonment can contribute to the unemployment rate for African Americans, since having been in prison can reduce one’s chances of finding a job once released.

Earning differences

African Americans also make less money than other ethnicities in the United States. In 2020, the median weekly earnings of African Americans were 794 U.S. dollars, compared to Asians, who made 1,310 U.S. dollars per week, and whites, who made 1,003 U.S. dollars per week. While the African American unemployment rate may be low, it is clear that much has to change in order to achieve full equality.

Abstract

The Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaires (CWIQ) survey has been developed over the past 5 years and mainly deployed in African countries as an attempt to improve the timeliness and reliability of poverty monitoring.

The survey was designed to collect information needed to identify and classify target groups and provide basic welfare indicators. It was in addition meant to collect information to measure access, utilisation and satisfaction with social services. The survey was developed by a group of donors and institutions including the World Bank, DFID, the ILO, UNICEF and UNDP. It adapted the technique of optical reading which permits fast processing of the data and thus timely release of the results.

The St. Lucia CWIQ survey objectives were as follows: • To introduce the survey to the Caribbean Region as an improved and affordable poverty monitoring tool. • To test the suitability of the poverty predictors for the Caribbean. • To provide welfare indicators for monitoring poverty and welfare programmes in St. Lucia

Geographic coverage

National

Analysis unit

• Households;
• Individuals.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The CWIQ sample is based on a two stage systematic random sample, the first stage being the Enumeration District (ED), and the second the household. A full list of EDs is available from the 2001 Population Census arranged by 10 Administrative Districts with household numbers and details of the percentage of households belonging to professional / office based workers as well as the percentage engaged in agriculture. St Lucia comprises around 47,275 households and the average ED consists of 118 households.

The CWIQ sample of EDs was drawn from a list of all 401 EDs arranged (i) by District and then (ii) by percent of office employees. This ensured a broad geographical coverage and a balance of urban and rural households. The sample of EDs was drawn using probability proportional to size (PPS) by accumulating household populations and selecting a fixed sampling interval with a random start point.

The objective of the sample is to obtain a nationally representative result with minimum cost and in the available time frame of 10-14 days. The original intention was to sample of 1750 households in 220 EDs, working at 8 interviews per day. However, it was recognised that this work rate was not achievable given household accessibility. A work rate of 3-4 per day per enumerator was considered feasible. To enable rapid completion, the number of EDs was set at 109 and the number of households per cluster increased to 12, giving a total sample of 1308 (around 3% of the national population of households). This is expected to be large enough to generate statistically reliable results for the main reporting disaggregations (poverty quintile, urban-rural, age categories, etc.). Only for District tabulations, where in the smaller Districts1 the sample drawn is quite small, is there a possibility of rather high margins of error due to small samples.

The resulting sample contains 62 urban and 47 rural EDs.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Cleaning operations

The data processing system for CWIQ surveys is tightly integrated with all survey development and implementation activities. This is necessary to achieve the objective of producing reliable survey results as quickly as possible. The specific objectives of the CWIQ data processing system for the St. Lucia survey are to: - Produce a survey database that is complete, consistent and has all known anomalies documented. - Produce survey results (data summaries, cross-tabulations, core indicators and sampling errors) within a week of the end of field work. - Facilitate the preparation of the survey report within three weeks of the end of field work. - Create a survey archive with all data, documentation and reports for dissemination to data users as soon as the survey report is available.

The CWIQ data processing system has four principal functions: (1) data entry, (2) data validation and correction, (3) preparation of survey results, and (4) creation of the survey archive. Data entry consists of converting the information in the survey questions to a machine readable form for processing in the subsequent phases.

The CWIQ data processing system is designed to process the generic CWIQ questionnaire. Like the generic questionnaire, the generic system is never used for a real survey, but is modified to fit the specific needs of each survey. As the generic questionnaire is adapted to local requirements, the data processing system is adapted for changes to the questionnaire and survey outputs.

Data entry for CWIQ surveys is done by optical scanning of the questionnaires using TELEform, a form design and image processing system. As the questionnaire is modified, the processing specifications are also adapted. These specifications are the basis for the computer programmes that comprise the data processing system.

For the St. Lucia survey the questionnaire was modified in three iterations. Likewise, the data entry and validation parts of the system were modified for each version of the questionnaire. The first modifications were tested with questionnaires completed during the field pre-test of the questionnaire. As a result of these changes, the questionnaires modified for interviewer training.

During scanning, the scanner creates an image of each page of the questionnaire. The scanning software subsequently evaluates the scanned images and questionnaires with possible errors are subject to verification by the data entry operator. Typical errors include unidentified pages that can not be evaluated; questionnaires with missing or mismatched pages, unrecognisable hand printed characters or bubbles which are not completely shaded. The time required for image evaluation and subsequent verification depends on how well the questionnaire was filled in. The interviewers completed hand printing and shading exercises during training to einsure that questionnaires were properly filled in.

After all potential errors for the EA were verified by the data entry operator, the data from the questionnaires was copied to transfer to the questionnaire database maintained on the network file server. The output of the scanner on the Windows Server was checked for certain errors and the questionnaire data was not transferred to the database until all such errors were corrected. The questionnaire data for the EA was then validated to insure that all questions had valid responses and that the responses were logically consistent. Any errors detected during validation were printed on a validation listing along with the questionnaire data. This list was compared to the questionnaires to determine the reason for the error and how to correct it. Corrections were recorded directly on the validation list which was use to enter corrections in the database. The validation was repeated after the corrections were entered until all errors were eliminated.

This process continued as the fieldwork progressed and was finished two days after fieldwork ended. When the questionnaires from all enumeration areas had been validated, the entire database was validated to insure that no errors had been overlooked.

The database updated with the analysis variables was used to prepare data summaries of the questionnaires and to produce cross-tabulations defined in the CWIQ tabulation plan. The summaries and the Tables were available two days after the final data validation. Sampling errors for the core welfare indicators were computed as the final step of the data processing system.

In 2022, there were about 4.15 million Black families in the United States with a single mother. This is an increase from 1990 levels, when there were about 3.4 million Black families with a single mother.

Single parenthood

The typical family is comprised of two parents and at least one child. However, that is not the case in every single situation. A single parent is someone who has a child but no spouse or partner. Single parenthood occurs for different reasons, including divorce, death, abandonment, or single-person adoption. Historically, single parenthood was common due to mortality rates due to war, diseases, and maternal mortality. However, divorce was not as common back then, depending on the culture.

Single parent wellbeing

In countries where social welfare programs are not strong, single parents tend to suffer more financially, emotionally, and mentally. In the United States, most single parents are mothers. The struggles that single parents face are greater than those in two parent households. The number of families with a single mother in the United States has increased since 1990, but the poverty rate of black families with a single mother has significantly decreased since that same year. In comparison, the poverty rate of Asian families with a single mother, and the percentage of white, non-Hispanic families with a single mother who live below the poverty level in the United States have both been fluctuating since 2002.

In 2023, the child abuse rate for children of Hispanic origin was at 6.7, indicating 6.7 out of every 1,000 Hispanic children in the United States suffered from some sort of abuse. This rate was highest among American Indian or Alaska Native children, with 13.8 children out of every 1,000 experiencing some form of abuse. Child abuse in the U.S. The child abuse rate in the United States is highest among American Indian or Alaska Native victims, followed by African-American victims. It is most common among children between two to five years of age. While child abuse cases are fairly evenly distributed between girls and boys, more boys than girls are victims of abuse resulting in death. The most common type of maltreatment is neglect, followed by physical abuse. Risk factors Child abuse is often reported by teachers, law enforcement officers, or social service providers. In the large majority of cases, the perpetrators of abuse were a parent of the victim. Risk factors, such as teen pregnancy, violent crime, and poverty that are associated with abuse and neglect have been found to be quite high in the United States in comparison to other countries.

As of March 15, 2023, Seychelles was the African country with the highest coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination rate, with around 205 doses administered per 100 individuals. Mauritius and Rwanda followed with 201 and 190 doses per 100 people, respectively. Ranking fourth, Morocco had a vaccination rate of approximately 148 doses per 100 people, registering the third-highest number of inoculations after Egypt and Nigeria. In South Africa, the most affected country on the continent, the vaccination rate instead reached around 64 per 100 population.

How did Africa obtain the vaccines?

Vaccines in Africa were obtained in different ways. African nations both purchased new doses and received them from other countries. At the beginning of the vaccination campaigns, donations came from all over the world, such as China, the United Arab Emirates, India, and Russia. The United Nations-led COVAX initiative provided Oxford/AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech doses to several African countries. Within this program, the continent received nearly 270 million doses as of January 2022. Moreover, the vaccination campaign has also been an occasion for intra-African solidarity. Senegal has, for instance, donated vaccines to the Gambia, while in January 2021, Algeria announced that it would have shared its supply with Tunisia.

COVID-19 impact on the African economy

The spread of COVID-19 negatively affected socio-economic growth in Africa, with the continent’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracting significantly in 2020. Specifically, Southern Africa experienced the sharpest decline, at minus six percent, followed by North Africa at minus 1.7 percent. Most of Africa’s key economic sectors were hit by the pandemic. The drop in global oil prices led to a crisis in the oil and gas sector. Nigeria, the continent’s leading oil-exporting country, witnessed a considerable decrease in crude oil trade in 2020. Moreover, the shrinking number of international tourist arrivals determined a loss of over 12 million jobs in Africa’s travel and tourism sector. Society has also been substantially affected by COVID-19 on the poorest continent in the world, and the number of people living in extreme poverty was estimated to increase by around 30 million in 2020.

Seychelles recorded the highest Gross National Income (GNI) per capita in Africa as of 2023, at 16,940 U.S. dollars. The African island was, therefore, the only high-income country on the continent, according to the source's classification. Mauritius, Gabon, Botswana, Libya, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Algeria, and Namibia were defined as upper-middle-income economies, those with a GNI per capita between 4,516 U.S. dollars and 14,005 U.S. dollars. On the opposite, 20 African countries recorded a GNI per capita below 1,145 U.S. dollars, being thus classified as low-income economies. Among them, Burundi presented the lowest income per capita, some 230 U.S. dollars. Poverty and population growth in Africa Despite a few countries being in the high income and upper-middle countries classification, Africa had a significant number of people living under extreme poverty. However, this number is expected to decline gradually in the upcoming years, with experts forecasting that this number will decrease to almost 400 million individuals by 2030 from nearly 430 million in 2023, despite the continent currently having the highest population growth rate globally. African economic growth and prosperity In recent years, Africa showed significant growth in various industries, such as natural gas production, clean energy generation, and services exports. Furthermore, it is forecast that the GDP growth rate would reach 4.5 percent by 2027, keeping the overall positive trend of economic growth in the continent.

The median income in 2023 was at 56,490 U.S. dollars for Black households. In 1990, the median income among Black households was 38,360 U.S. dollars (In 2023 U.S. dollars).