POVERTY NUMBERS UP, INCOME DOWN - Stats Worse In Appalachia

(09/26/2002)

While West Virginia cut programs to low income families, often training them for jobs that do not exist in the state, the U. S. Census Bureau reported more people are living below the poverty level in West Virginia and parts of the south. The poverty line statistics had been improving. The poverty rate is the percentage of residents who live at or below the federal poverty line, about $18,104 for a family of four. In West Virginia the poverty level is 15.6 percent in 2002, and in some counties reaches well over 20 percent. The average amount to which poor people fell reached the highest level on record since 1979, according to Census Bureau data. Three million workers will likely not have found jobs by the end of the year with their benefits exhausted.

Hur Herald ®from Sunny Cal The information on these pages, to the extent the law allows, remains the exclusive property of Bob Weaver and Dianne Weaver The Hur Herald. All information may be freely used but must not be sold or used in any type of commercial endeavor, or used on any web site without the express permission of the owners ©Bob and Dianne Weaver, The Hur Herald, 1999, 2000, 2001