Americans Say More People Live in Poverty Today than 10 Years Ago
Despite the billions of dollars spent on government anti-poverty programs, a majority of Americans nationwide still believe there are more poor people in the country today than there were 10 years ago.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 69% of Adults think there are more people living in poverty than there were a decade ago. Only 10% say there are fewer individuals living in poverty today, while 16% say the number is about the same. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
In September of last year just after the U.S. Census Bureau released new poverty figures, 75% said more people were living in poverty compared to 10 years earlier.
Seventy-five percent (75%) of Americans think poverty is at least somewhat severe in the United States today, including 30% who say the problem is Very Severe. Only 20% of adults say poverty in America is not severe, with six percent (6%) who say it is Not At All Severe.
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The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on April 2-3, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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