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.

As of 2019, approximately 18 million South Africans vulnerable to poverty or in need of state support received social grants, relief assistance or social relief paid by the government. The largest group that received social grants were Black and Coloured South Africans.

In the 3 years to March 2021, white British families were the most likely to receive a type of state support.

In 1990, 48.1 percent of all Black families with a single mother in the United States lived below the poverty level. In 2023, that figure had decreased to 25.9 percent. This is significantly higher than white households with a single mother. 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.

In July 2024, 3.16 billion U.S. dollars were paid out in unemployment benefits in the United States. This is an increase from June 2024, when 2.62 billion U.S. dollars were paid in unemployment benefits. The large figures seen in 2020 are largely due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Welfare in the U.S. Unemployment benefits first started in 1935 during the Great Depression as a part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. The Social Security Act of 1935 ensured that Americans would not fall deeper into poverty. The United States was the only developed nation in the world at the time that did not offer any welfare benefits. This program created unemployment benefits, Medicare and Medicaid, and maternal and child welfare. The only major welfare program that the United States currently lacks is a paid maternity leave policy. Currently, the United States only offers 12 unpaid weeks of leave, under certain circumstances. However, the number of people without health insurance in the United States has greatly decreased since 2010. Unemployment benefits Current unemployment benefits in the United States vary from state to state due to unemployment being funded by both the state and the federal government. The average duration of people collecting unemployment benefits in the United States has fluctuated since January 2020, from as little as 4.55 weeks to as many as 50.32 weeks. The unemployment rate varies by ethnicity, gender, and education levels. For example, those aged 16 to 24 have faced the highest unemployment rates since 1990 during the pandemic. In February 2023, the Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV metropolitan area had the highest unemployment rate in the United States.

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.

The DSS Payment Demographic data set is made up of:

Selected DSS payment data by

• Geography: state/territory, electorate, postcode, LGA and SA2 (for 2015 onwards)

• Demographic: age, sex and Indigenous/non-Indigenous

• Duration on Payment (Working Age & Pensions)

• Duration on Income Support (Working Age, Carer payment & Disability Support Pension)

• Rate (Working Age & Pensions)

• Earnings (Working Age & Pensions)

• Age Pension assets data

• JobSeeker Payment and Youth Allowance (other) Principal Carers

• Activity Tested Recipients by Partial Capacity to Work (NSA,PPS & YAO)

• Exits within 3, 6 and 12 months (Newstart Allowance/JobSeeker Payment, Parenting Payment, Sickness Allowance & Youth Allowance)

• Disability Support Pension by medical condition

• Care Receiver by medical conditions

• Commonwealth Rent Assistance by Payment type and Income Unit type have been added from March 2017. For further information about Commonwealth Rent Assistance and Income Units see the Data Descriptions and Glossary included in the dataset.

From December 2022, the "DSS Expanded Benefit and Payment Recipient Demographics – quarterly data" publication has introduced expanded reporting populations for income support recipients. As a result, the reporting population for Jobseeker Payment and Special Benefit has changed to include recipients who are current but on zero rate of payment and those who are suspended from payment. The reporting population for ABSTUDY, Austudy, Parenting Payment and Youth Allowance has changed to include those who are suspended from payment. The expanded report will replace the standard report after June 2023.

Additional data for DSS Expanded Benefit and Payment Recipient Demographics – quarterly data includes:

• A new contents page to assist users locate the information within the spreadsheet

• Additional data for the ‘Suspended’ population in the ‘Payment by Rate’ tab to enable users to calculate the old reporting rules.

• Additional information on the Employment Earning by ‘Income Free Area’ tab.

From December 2022, Services Australia have implemented a change in the Centrelink payment system to recognise gender other than the sex assigned at birth or during infancy, or as a gender which is not exclusively male or female. To protect the privacy of individuals and comply with confidentialisation policy, persons identifying as ‘non-binary’ will initially be grouped with ‘females’ in the period immediately following implementation of this change. The Department will monitor the implications of this change and will publish the ‘non-binary’ gender category as soon as privacy and confidentialisation considerations allow.

Local Government Area has been updated to reflect the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2022 boundaries from June 2023.

Commonwealth Electorate Division has been updated to reflect the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2021 boundaries from June 2023.

SA2 has been updated to reflect the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) 2021 boundaries from June 2023.

From December 2021, the following are included in the report:

• selected payments by work capacity, by various demographic breakdowns

• rental type and homeownership

• Family Tax Benefit recipients and children by payment type

• Commonwealth Rent Assistance by proportion eligible for the maximum rate

• an age breakdown for Age Pension recipients

For further information, please see the Glossary.

From June 2021, data on the Paid Parental Leave Scheme is included yearly in June releases. This includes both Parental Leave Pay and Dad and Partner Pay, across multiple breakdowns. Please see Glossary for further information.

From March 2017 the DSS demographic dataset will include top 25 countries of birth. For further information see the glossary.

From March 2016 machine readable files containing the three geographic breakdowns have also been published for use in National Map, links to these datasets are below:

• Statistical Area 2 - SA2

• Commonwealth Electoral Division - CED

• Local Government Area - LGA

Pre June 2014 Quarter Data contains:

Selected DSS payment data by

• Geography: state/territory; electorate; postcode and LGA

• Demographic: age, sex and Indigenous/non-Indigenous

Note: JobSeeker Payment replaced Newstart Allowance and other working age payments from 20 March 2020, for further details see: https://www.dss.gov.au/benefits-payments/jobseeker-payment

For data on DSS payment demographics as at June 2013 or earlier, the department has published data which was produced annually. Data is provided by payment type containing timeseries’, state, gender, age range, and various other demographics. Links to these publications are below:

• Statistical Paper series

Concession card data in the March and June 2020 quarters have been re-stated to address an over-count in reported cardholder numbers.

28/06/2024 – The March 2024 and December 2023 reports were republished with updated data in the ‘Carer Receivers by Med Condition’ section, updates are exclusive to the ‘Care Receivers of Carer Payment recipients’ table, under ‘Intellectual / Learning’ and ‘Circulatory System’ conditions only.

The unemployment rate for people ages 16 to 24 in the United States in 202024 23 was 10 percent. However, this rate was much lower for people aged 45 and over, at 2.9 percent. U.S. unemployment The unemployment rate in the United States varies based on several factors, such as race, gender, and level of education. Black and African-American individuals had the highest unemployment rate in 2021 out of any ethnicity, and people who had less than a high school diploma had the highest unemployment rate by education level. Alaska is consistently the state with the highest unemployment rate, although the El Centro, California metropolitan area was the area with the highest unemployment rate in the country in 2019. Additionally, in August 2022, farming, fishing, and forestry occupations had the highest unemployment rate in the United States Unemployment rate The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is the agency that researches and calculates the unemployment rate in the United States. Unemployment rises during recessions, which causes the cost of social welfare programs to increase. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says unemployed people are those who are jobless, have looked for employment within the last four weeks, and are free to work.

Close to *** people in Hokkaido prefecture, Japan, stated that they live on welfare in 2017. This implies that around **** people out of 1000 surveyed Ainu people received welfare during the measured time period. Despite a continuous decline in the number, it was still comparably higher than the average ratio of people on welfare in Hokkaido. Ainu people are indigenous peoples, who inhabit mainly around the area of Hokkaido. In the Ainu Promotion Act enacted in Japan in 2019, the race was acknowledged for the first time in the history as the indigenous peoples of Japan.

In 2023 the poverty rate in the United States was highest among people between 18 and 24, with a rate of 16 percent for male Americans and a rate of 21 percent for female Americans. The lowest poverty rate for both men and women was for those aged between 45 and 54. What is the poverty line? The poverty line is a metric used by the U.S. Census Bureau to define poverty in the United States. It is a specific income level that is considered to be the bare minimum a person or family needs to meet their basic needs. If a family’s annual pre-tax income is below this income level, then they are considered impoverished. The poverty guideline for a family of four in 2021 was 26,500 U.S. dollars. Living below the poverty line According to the most recent data, almost one-fifth of African Americans in the United States live below the poverty line; the most out of any ethnic group. Additionally, over 7.42 million families in the U.S. live in poverty – a figure that has held mostly steady since 1990, outside the 2008 financial crisis which threw 9.52 million families into poverty by 2012. The poverty gender gap Wage inequality has been an ongoing discussion in U.S. discourse for many years now. The poverty gap for women is most pronounced during their child-bearing years, shrinks, and then grows again in old age. While progress has been made on the gender pay gap over the last 30 years, there are still significant disparities, even in occupations that predominantly employ men. Additionally, women are often having to spend more time attending to child and household duties than men.